Yandal Resources Ltd (ASX:YRL) has hit the ground running in 2022 with diamond drilling campaigns underway at three priority targets within the Gordons Gold Project in Western Australia.
Drilling is underway at Bradman prospect with the Star of Gordon and Gordons Dam prospect also in the company's sights with the campaign to follow-up encouraging previous reverse circulation (RC) results.
A three-hole diamond drilling program began at Bradman last week to follow up a significant RC intersection of 11 metres at 2.0 g/t gold from 257 metres, including 1-metre at 9.9 g/t from 260 metres.
At Star of Gordon, a five-hole diamond drilling program is planned to begin in mid-January to follow up encouraging new mineralisation discovered in 2021 RC programs including:
- 1-metre at 19.8 g/t gold from 159 metres; and
- 10 metres at 8.4 g/t from 43 metres including 1-metre at 52.5 g/t.
Yandal has received encouraging assay results from shallow infill RC drilling at Gordons Dam ahead of the initial mineral resource compilation and mine approval activities:
- 5 metres at 3.7 g/t gold from 28 metres including 1-metre at 16.6 g/t;
- 23 metres at 1.2 g/t from 52 metres including 2 metres at 8.4 g/t; and
- 43 metres at 0.7 g/t from 42 metres including 8 metres at 2.0 g/t.
New RC drilling to infill and extend mineralisation envelopes and geotechnical diamond drilling to support open pit mine design parameters is planned to begin later this month.
“Highly encouraging”
Yandal managing director Lorry Hughes said: “The exploration team is very excited to hit the ground running and commence exploration in the first week of January.
“Our results throughout 2021 from multiple prospects were highly encouraging and with the number and quality of targets planned for testing, 2022 could well be a pivotal year for the company.
“The strongly supported entitlement issue and shortfall placement we launched in November 2021 ensures the company is well funded and allows us to continue thorough exploration programs at all high-priority prospects.
“Yandal is targeting 100,000-120,000 metres of drilling in 2022 and I look forward to building on the successes of last year to rapidly expand the mineral resource base”
Yandal Resources’ gold project locations.
Drilling update
At Bradman, results from two earlier RC holes completed within 200 metres of YRLRC646 and a further 25 RC holes completed along around 2.5 kilometres strike to the north at the adjoining Malone prospect are pending.
At Gordons Dam, individual 1-metre fire-assay results have been received from 29 RC holes and 4-metre composite results have been received from four RC holes, other strong results include:
- 6 metres at 1.5 g/t gold from 37 metres including 1-metre at 7.2 g/t;
- 2 metres at 3.0 g/t from 38 metres including 1-metre at 5.7 g/t; and
- 7 metres at 1.0 g/t from 30 metres including 1-metre at 5.9g/t.
Moving forward results from a further 20 RC holes are pending and when returned an initial mineral resource estimate will be compiled for evaluation and mining study purposes.
At Star of Gordon, the aim of the program is to provide high quality geological and structural data to assist with the compilation of a robust geological model of the known mineralisation to aid future exploration targeting.
New extensional RC drilling is also planned to recommence at the prospect in February after some pending RC results are received and initial observations of available drill core have been made.
Plan view drilling collar map coloured by maximum gold grade projected to the drill collar with interpreted geology for the Gordons Dam prospect
Next steps
Key exploration activities planned during the March quarter include:
- Receive and interpret pending aircore and RC results from the Malone, Gordons Dam, Star of Gordon, Andrews, Bradman, Challenger, Parmelia, Success and HMS Sulphur prospects;
- Complete the initial diamond drilling program at the Bradman, Star of Gordon and Gordons Dam prospects, process core and generate new RC targets for immediate testing;
- Compile an open-pit mineral resource estimate and commence pit optimisation studies for the Gordons Dam prospect;
- Recommence and prepare for aircore and RC drilling at the Star of Gordons prospect and the Ironstone Well and Barwidgee projects;
- Commence detailed planning and execution of heritage surveys over key prospect areas within the Ironstone Well and Barwidgee projects including priority areas within, adjacent to and along strike from the Newport, Flushing Meadows, Oblique, Quarter Moon, Flinders Park and Sims Find prospects.