Alchemy Resources Limited (ASX:ALY) has pinpointed a suite of new drill targets at its Karonie South property, an area of interest within the broader Karonie Gold Project in Western Australia.
The gold and base metals explorer identified five priority targets following a structural review, including one known as Western Brown, which has seen no exploration of any kind over a 2-square-kilometre area.
Now, drill planning is underway to test the new targets as part of Alchemy’s phase two drilling program, which is focused on the Karonie project’s southern tenements.
During the phase one campaign, completed in May this year, the ASX-lister drilled 27 reverse circulation (RC) holes for 3,121 metres across four central 'Karonie-style' targets.
Getting rigs back on the ground
Discussing the results, Alchemy CEO James Wilson said: “The detailed mapping program has identified some excellent walk-up drill targets to test in the second half of 2021.
“We are excited to get rigs back on the ground in an area which hasn’t seen any modern exploration in 10 to 20 years.
“The identification of the new greenfields Western Brown target is also very promising, and this area is now a priority target for reverse circulation drilling in coming months.
“Western Brown is a large lake target with classic geological and geophysical indicators and has had no exploration of any kind.
“Near term, we expect to get drone magnetics flying to better refine our targeting prior to drilling in the second half of this year.”
Pinpointing new drill targets
Over 2021’s first quarter, Alchemy completed a field mapping campaign that set out to define drill targets from the camp-scale prospective areas pinpointed in the Karonie structural review, which was completed earlier this year.
The mapping campaign took place over Karonie’s southern Gilmore, Esplanade and Batavia prospects — areas that have delivered historical gold results such as:
- 3 metres at 14.6 g/t gold;
- 1-metre at 17.8 g/t; and
- 8 metres at 2.1 g/t.
Ultimately, Alchemy’s fieldwork unveiled five priority drill targets along the prospective corridor immediately south of the Aldiss Mine currently operated by Silver Lake Resources Limited. (ASX:SLR)
Apart from Western Brown, which has seen no historical exploration of any kind, other targets range from the early-stage to semi-advanced targets at the Challenger and Esplanade areas, which have seen no modern exploration since the early 2000s.
Spotlight on Karonie South targets
Alchemy’s newly discovered Western Brown target spans a 2-kilometre by 2-kilometre area, defined as a magnetic dolerite that is disrupted by a major northeast-striking fault corridor, a common structural control on mineralisation throughout the Karonie province.
To the southwest, a significant number of discoveries have been made, including Silver Lake French Kiss open pit and Kairos Minerals Ltd (ASX:KAI)’s Lady of the Lake and Lingering Kiss prospects.
Over at the Gilmore target, field mapping has indicated a large volume of folded magnetic dolerite, also cut by a major northeast-striking fault corridor.
In the past, this area has only been partially drill tested and a high-resolution magnetics survey is planned to assist with drill planning.
Challenger is described as a more advanced target, where previous aircore drilling has identified a multi-element anomaly that’s considered the best pathfinder for mineralisation.
Here, Alchemy intends to conduct northeast-oriented drilling to effectively test the target’s southwest-dipping fold limb.
At Challenger South, the ASX-lister believes historical aircore drilling has failed to define the tight lode mineralisation typical along the Keith Kilkenny Shear Zone, so further exploration is planned in this area.
Finally, at Esplanade South, Alchemy sees the potential for dolerite and sediment-hosted mineralisation along a 4.5-kilometre strike of disrupted magnetic features.
There has been sparse drilling over the target area, comprising roughly 150-metre by 800-metre spaced aircore drill holes.
Transition to phase two
Now that the phase one program has run its course, the phase two program will work along the southern Karonie tenements, including the Gilmore, Challenger and Esplanade prospects.
Alchemy believes these are all highly prospective, with camp scale structural targets and numerous high-grade intercepts that have not been followed up.
Access agreements and work programs have been submitted, with drilling to commence once clearances have been obtained.
Alchemy also plans to conduct high-resolution UAV magnetics over the targets to better define areas for drill planning purposes and to highlight prospective structures.
