Great Boulder Resources Ltd (ASX:GBR) has received further strong assays of up to 9 metres at 24.19 g/t gold from 193 metres to the end of hole, including 1-metre at 184.78 g/t, in reverse circulation (RC) drilling at Mulga Bill prospect within the Side Well Gold Project in WA.
Ten RC holes were drilled under the phase four program by mid-September, with three holes drilled back towards the east to test GBR’s new theory of west-dipping high-grade veins.
During the program, Great Boulder continued to build on previous high-grade success at Mulga Bill with other highlights apart from hole 21MBRC054 of:
- 2 metres at 9.96 g/t from 87 metres;
- 3 metres at 24.05 g/t from 117 metres;
- 6 metres at 3.08 g/t from 166 metres;
- 4 metres at 10.11 g/t from 180 metres; and
- 8 metres at 2.63 g/t from 189 metres.
This has driven share prices as much as 8.6% higher in the first hour to A$0.151 and the gold explorer has flagged further strong, near-term newsflow as it waits on assays from:
- Mulga Bill aircore (AC) and RC drilling;
- AC drilling at Ironbark (a new discovery);
- Soil samples from the high priority regional prospect Jones Well; and
- The Whiteheads regional AC drilling program.
First phase five assays in new year
Speaking to the phase four results from Side Well, Great Boulder managing director Andrew Paterson said: “These results have helped confirm the orientation of stacked, west-dipping high-grade quartz veins which we first observed in the diamond core drilling immediately before this phase of RC work.
“We’ve since drilled more holes on this orientation to test this area during the phase five program which concluded last week.
“The intersection in 21MBRC054 is approximately 850 metres further south from the high grades reported in holes 21MBRC050 and 21MBRC051.
“It’s hosted within the north-south shear zone, and it may represent a different orientation or style of high-grade mineralisation, possibly steeply dipping.
“We aim to be completing additional drilling in that area as soon as possible in the New Year.”
Paterson also updated the market on the latest round of drilling at the Side Well gold play.
“Phase five was the biggest RC program yet completed by Great Boulder,” he noted. “We drilled 41 holes for 7,822 metres over a five-week program.
“Our sample turnaround time is now around 10 weeks, so we should start seeing the first assays by New Year.”
Phase four program
Ultimately, the latest assays build on strong results reported from Side Well in late October, such as 6 metres at 39.15 g/t from 101 metres, including 3 metres at 74.51 g/t from 91 metres.
Results from hole 21MBRC054, which tabled the 184.78 g/t intersection, are particularly significant as they mark the southernmost high-grade RC hit at Mulga Bill to date.
Overall, the result highlights the untested bedrock potential as drilling continues to move south along a 5-kilometre footprint defined by gold and pathfinder geochemistry and geophysics.
Next steps
Great Boulder is waiting for assay results from multiple programs, all of which will be used to plan ongoing work in 2022.
These include:
- Soil samples from a recent program infilling possible gold-arsenic anomalies at Jones Well, on the northern end of the Side Well project;
- Assays from regional AC drilling on a number of prospects at Whiteheads ( where drilling concluded on October 2);
- Assays from extensional AC drilling at Mulga Bill and Ironbark at Side Well (where drilling concluded on November 2); and
- Assays from Phase 5 at Mulga Bill, which concluded on November 21.
A 3D induced polarisation (IP) survey is planned to commence over Mulga Bill during December, testing the chargeability response of disseminated pyrite that has now been observed in a number of RC holes.
Ultimately, Great Boulder believes the IP data will be another useful targeting tool for mineralisation related to disseminated sulphides.
In the New Year, the company will continue to prioritise RC and diamond drilling at Mulga Bill, adding further definition to the stacked high-grade quartz veins.
Simultaneously, it will step out to the south to test the continuity of north-south trending gold-copper-silver mineralisation.
In the meantime, deeper diamond holes are being planned to test the centre of the coincident gravity and electromagnetic anomaly highlighted in late October.