OzAurum Resources Ltd (ASX:OZM) is targeting high-grade gold with extensive drilling planned this year at Mulgabbie North and Patricia projects following a productive 2021.
The company has around 15,000 metres of drilling planned for the next six months, set to kick off in February, after defining several new and exciting gold targets.
This planned drilling program will include 3,000 metres of diamond drilling, 7,500 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling and 5,000 metres of aircore drilling.
Favourable geology at Mulgabbie North
Mulgabbie North Gold Project, on the Keith Kilkenny fault zone with favourable host rocks, looks to be an exciting gold discovery story in the vein of the Northern Star Carosue Dam Gold Mine.
The company’s large-scale drilling program, including the current aircore gold drill results, have clearly defined significant zones of gold mineralisation along and adjacent to the Relief Shear within the Keith Kilkenny fault zone.
“Successful drilling last year, which led to the discovery of a new widespread zone of gold mineralisation within the Mulgabbie North project, extending over 4.2 kilometres, provides us with even greater confidence in the large-scale potential of the project,” CEO Andrew Pumphrey said.
“We are excited by the potential of this area where the host rocks are intermediate-felsic volcaniclastic units – very similar to the Northern Star Carosue Dam Karari and Whirling Dervish gold mines.”
Diamond drilling at Mulgabbie North aims to improve understanding gold mineralisation controls, as well as targeting cross fault positions – a key aspect of high-grade gold mineralisation in the area – while aircore drilling will test 2 kilometres of strike to the south of Mulgabbie North along the Relief Shear.
Ben prospect
RC drilling aims to test new high-grade supergene gold targets between the Alicia and Ben prospects, coinciding with the magnetic destruction zone.
The company hopes to probe the area immediately along strike to the south of the Ben prospect, where several aircore holes have intersected significant supergene gold mineralisation, including MNOAC 536 which intersected 17 metres at 0.80 g/t gold from 56 metres including 4 metres at 1.68 g/t and 1-metre at 1.52 g/t from 72 metres.
“Extensive supergene gold mineralisation situated within the magnetic destruction zone on the very steep gravity gradient makes for exciting new targets to be tested with future RC and diamond drilling," Pumphrey said.
“This area is under transported cover that has prevented previous effective exploration and now represents a significant exploration opportunity for us.”
Concurrent with all this work is the ongoing interpretation of the recently completed detailed drone magnetic and close spaced gravity surveys.
Patricia Gold Project
OzAurum’s recent RC drilling at the Patricia Gold Project includes PTORC 024 (5 metres at 37.11 g/t), PTORC 022 (5 metres at 11.74 g/t) and extensions at depth.
Initial observations and the early interpretation of RC drill results at Patricia indicate that it is a structurally complex project, potentially with late-stage faulting offsetting lithologies and potential gold mineralisation.
The company aims to understand this complexity with further RC and diamond drilling planned to target high-grade gold.