Great Boulder Resources Ltd (ASX:GBR) has begun a 5,000-metre aircore drilling program at its Whiteheads Gold Project north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
GBR has a portfolio of highly prospective gold and base metals assets ranging from greenfields through to advanced exploration located in WA, but its core focus is advancing the Whiteheads and Side Well gold projects, while progressing initial exploration at the earlier stage Wellington Base Metals Project in an emerging MVT province.
At Whiteheads, GBR is testing five regional targets, including Blue Poles South, Tektite and Highbury on the Arsenal Trend. It will also conduct further drilling at Jubilee North and its first drill program at the Eclipse prospect.
Drilling is expected to take approximately three weeks.
Diamond drilling in February
Once the aircore drilling is complete, GBR will send a diamond rig to drill at the Mulga Bill prospect at Side Well – expected to start in mid-February.
“It’s good to have our field team back on the ground at Whiteheads while we continue developing drilling programs for Side Well, Great Boulder’s managing director Andrew Paterson said.
“Whiteheads is a big project with dozens of priority targets, and this program continues our systematic testing that has been ongoing for the past two years.
“We’re also looking forward to the upcoming diamond program at Side Well next month. By that time we should have the bulk of our 2021 assay data back, which will allow us to plan some big RC and diamond drilling programs in the months ahead.”
Positive assays
GBR recently received assays from a regional aircore program it completed in September/October 2021.
Results showed several encouraging anomalous intersections similar to the early-stage drilling at Blue Poles, where thick zones of gold mineralisation were discovered beneath anomalous bottom-of-hole assays in the initial aircore coverage.
122 aircore holes were drilled at Whiteheads for 5,166 metres in September and October 2021 testing a range of regional targets including some that had not previously been drilled. These included:
- 8 holes (439 metres) at Gunners on the Arsenal Trend;
- 23 holes (1,127 metres) at Tektite, south of Blue Poles on the Arsenal Trend;
- 8 holes (518 metres) at Highbury, on the Arsenal Trend southwest of Tektite;
- 6 holes (226 metres) on a single fence of drilling at Reception Hill;
- 57 holes (1,919 metres) along strike to the northwest and southeast of Seven Leaders; and
- 20 holes (937 metres) at Jubilee North.
Assay highlights include:
- 1-metre at 2.55 g/t gold from 41 metres in 21WHAC110 at Tektite;
- 4 metres at 0.61 g/t from 80 metres in 21WHAC128 at Jubilee North; and
- 12 metres at 0.23 g/t from 67 metres in WHAC174 at Seven Leaders.
The Tektite and Highbury results continue to add to the potential of the Arsenal Trend south of Blue Poles.
The company is encouraged by these results in comparison to early-stage drilling at Blue Poles, where thick zones of gold mineralisation were discovered beneath anomalous bottom-of-hole assays in the initial aircore coverage.