Cauldron Energy Ltd (ASX:CXU) expects to have the underground diamond drill spinning before Christmas at Tyrconnel Adit in the historically worked Eastern Gold Reefs at Blackwood Gold Project in central Victoria.
The company is targeting an under-explored area adjacent to the Annie Laurie Reef, which was last mined in the 1800s during the Victorian Gold Rush, with a fan of five underground holes designed to delineate a potentially high-grade mineralised system.
Prior drilling, channel sampling and mapping were used to identify the potential of this specific target, positioning its drill platform within the Tyrconnel Adit, 100 metres underground, considered the best place from which to test multiple targets in both the Eastern (Annie Laurie/Grace Edgerton) and Western (Sultan/Mounters) reef systems.
Cauldron believes a Kempe Diamond Drill set up at this location will afford the best access to drill multiple short holes and maximise target structure intersections.
COVID hurdles surmounted
Cauldron's executive chair Simon Youds said: “It has been a very frustrating period for the team at Blackwood – having such high potential targets but being unable to drill them due to COVID travel restrictions and access limitations.
“Now that both issues are in hand, we can finally resume the exciting task of testing what we perceive to be a previously unrecognised section of the Eastern Reef system.
“Unfortunately, this means that we will be working through the holiday season, however at least now we will be able to resume our initial goal of testing an extremely exciting, historically-rich gold mining area that has been under explored in modern times and which still has the potential to contain untold resources of gold mineralisation.”
Kempe Diamond Drilling equipment and operators are available now that COVID restrictions have lifted and are expected to be drilling on-site before Christmas.
About Cauldron Energy
Cauldron Energy is a mineral exploration and development company focused on generating short-term cash flow through the exploitation of its diverse portfolio of mineral resource projects.
A Victorian gold project centred on the historic Blackwood Goldfield is the major focus and the company plans to drill test the highly prospective area around Rogers Big Hill, Eldorado and Homeward Bound, highlighted following a review of historical exploration data and mining records.
Cauldron has also acquired a sand project comprising a number of river sand leases at the mouths of the Carnarvon, Onslow and Derby rivers in Western Australia.