Sipa Resources Ltd (ASX:SRI) has started a 4,000 metres aircore drilling program at its 100%-owned Warralong Gold Project in northern Pilbara, Western Australia.
The program is designed to test intrusive, structural and lithological targets interpreted from Sipa’s detailed aeromagnetic survey, and if needed, the company can increase the drill metres.
The program is anticipated to take about two weeks to complete, testing targets on one of the recently granted Warralong tenements.
Bedrock information from this drilling program will assist in building a geological framework for undercover basement rocks to assist in future targeting efforts.
Exciting step forward
Sipa’s managing director Pip Darvall said: “It is a great outcome to be able to be drilling on our Warralong project within a month of the first tenements being granted.
“Testing these new targets is an exciting step forward for us and is only the beginning of what we anticipate will be a busy few months at Warralong.”
Building a geological framework
The basement is completely obscured by thin sheet wash, and no drilling has previously been completed in the areas that will be tested as part of this program.
The first-round drilling will test a range of target types generated from Sipa’s detailed aeromagnetic survey along the Lalla Rookh shear zone and its associated splays.
These include interpreted discrete intrusions, favourable structural positions and alteration zones.
Lithological and geochemical information
The Lalla Rookh shear zone is a crustal-scale feature sub-parallel and to the east of the Tabba Tabba shear zone, which is a controlling structure for numerous deposits including the Hemi Gold Camp.
The program will also provide important lithological and geochemical information to build a detailed geological model of the basement.
The geological model will in turn assist in future targeting efforts, incorporating the controls to gold and other mineralisation types found elsewhere in the district.