Okapi Resources Ltd (ASX:OKR) has unveiled its proposed 11-hole, 1,800-metre diamond drilling program at its 100%-owned Enmore Gold Project in the New England Fold Belt, south of the regional centre of Armidale in northern New South Wales.
The primary objective is to follow up drilling at the Sunnyside Prospect, which returned exceptional results in Okapi’s maiden drilling program in September 2021.
The drilling will also add significantly to the structural and lithological information on the project and aid interpretation of the controls of mineralisation moving forward for future drill programs.
Mineralisation at Sunnyside remains open at depth and along strike, while diamond drilling is expected to commence later this month.
Okapi will also focus on drilling the Sherwood Prospect to test beneath old workings and follow up on historically intersected high-grade gold mineralisation.
Excited by upcoming drilling program
Okapi Resources managing director Andrew Ferrier said: “While the company remains focused on advancing and developing its key uranium assets in North America, the Enmore Gold Project in NSW remains an important project for the team and we are excited by the upcoming drilling program, which is expected to commence in late March.
“The proposed 1,800 metres diamond drilling program is focused on the Sunnyside prospect, which generated significant gold intercepts in the last drilling program completed by Okapi in 2021.
“The objectives of the additional drilling are to focus on testing the high-grade mineralisation along strike and down dip at Sunnyside East and also to drill at depth beneath the existing near-surface oxide mineralisation at the main Sunnyside prospect.”
Proposed drilling program
Okapi has engaged Geos Mining in Sydney to design and supervise the upcoming drilling program at the Enmore Project.
The proposed drilling program has been formulated in close collaboration with Geos Mining, which has completed a detailed review of all the existing data, considerable data compilation and a site visit to the project in February 2022.
Downhole surveys and core orientation measurements will be taken and all core will be geologically logged, photographed and marked up for sampling.
Sampling intervals will be based on lithology, alteration and mineralisation style with maximum intervals of one metre.
A drilling contract has been executed with a reputable drilling company that has the necessary equipment to carry out a safe and efficient drilling program.
A track-mounted drilling rig and above-ground recirculation tanks will ensure that an environmentally sound operation will be carried out to landowner and governmental requirements.
Proposed Drilling at Sunnyside
Significant shallow mineralisation has been intersected at the Sunnyside Prospect, where gold mineralisation is present over some 400 metres between splays of the district-scale Sunnyside Fault.
Mineralisation remains open at depth, with drill hole OSSRC06 terminated at 174 metres depth after the final 3-metre interval assayed 3 metres at 8.86 g/t gold, including 1 metre at 15.15 g/t gold from 172 metres.
The initial focus of the drill program will be to test the mineralised zone outlined by OSSRC04 and OSSRC06, which were completed in the 2021 program.
Okapi plans to drill five drill holes in Sunnyside East (POKDD003-PODK007).
The second objective of the drilling will be to test the mineralisation at depth through proposed drill holes POKDD008-POKDD011.
The proposed drilling program will test the mineralisation to a depth of 100 metres below surface.
Proposed drilling at Sherwood
The Sherwood prospect on the Bora Fault remains the most interesting of the regional targets at the Enmore Project.
Historical diamond drill holes were completed by Silver Valley Minerals in 1973 to test beneath the old workings, but only DDH1 was assayed and intersected visible gold at the brecciated and sheared quartzite/ granite contact.
Okapi returned 56.6 g/t gold from 60.8 to 61.4 metres from a low-grade gold zone.
POKDD001 is planned to intersect the sediment/granite contact where a historical hole intersected high-grade gold.
POKDD002 is a step-back to test the same contact roughly 40 metres below POKDD001.