White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM, OTCQX:WRMCF) has identified another potential new mining area following surface drilling at the Stacpoole and Age of Progress reefs within the Dickenson South target area of Morning Star underground gold mine at the Woods Point Project in Victoria, Australia.
The newly identified area is potentially more than 120 metres in strike length and up to 20 metres down-dip, with significant true widths greater than three metres where the Stacpoole and Age of Progress reefs merge along the eastern margin of the host dyke.
Centred on an area of limited historic mining, it is at the southern end of the dyke, nearby the existing Morning Star Adit on 2 level, offering quick access once further drilling confirms its prospectivity.
Stacpoole Reef results
The recent drill program has returned multiple high-grade gold intersections through the Stacpoole Reef in a number of contiguous drill holes, providing confidence that this reef could form one of multiple production areas in any restart scenario.
Following on from high-grade gold drill hole results at the Age of Progress and Whitelaw reefs, the Dickenson Reef and the Whitelaw Reef, together with current drilling adjacent to recent mining of the McNally Reef, these four areas are now undergoing mine planning as part of the assessment process ahead of any re-start of underground mining.
Of particular significance, the Stacpoole Reef shows strong potential for a significant high-grade zone to exist along the eastern margin of the dyke with high grades (>10g/t) encountered in multiple drill holes.
The prospective portion of the Stacpoole vein occurs where it merges with the Age of Progress Reef with several significant true width mineralised intervals greater than three metres, often with a high-grade core greater than 10 g/t gold.
Significant assay results for the Stacpoole Reef from the current surface drilling campaign include:
➢ 3.8 metres at 5.5 g/t gold including 0.6 metres at 19.5 g/t (true width);
➢ 3.7 metres at 6.1 g/t including 1.8 metres at 10.0 g/t (true width);
➢ 5.3 metres at 3.7 g/t including 0.4 metres at 20.1 g/t (true width); and
➢ 1.1 metres at 13.5 g/t (true width).
Drilling of the untested southern extension of the Stacpoole Reef is underway while the surface drill rig completes infill drilling on the Dickenson Reef.
Multiple high-grade intersections
Drilling results have been extremely encouraging with multiple high-grade intersections across various reefs.
These results support the interpretation that there may be an extension of the mineralisation from historic stoping with existing development access near the shaft, through to the southern dyke margin.
A three-dimensional interpretation of the reefs is well advanced and is being used to inform targets for closer spaced drilling that have the potential to contribute to a near-term production restart without the need for extensive capital works, such as the Stacpoole and Dickenson Reefs.
Low capital cost restart
White Rock’s primary objective at the Morning Star underground mine is a low capital cost restart of production from multiple reef locations.
It plans to identify and drill areas of the dyke with the potential to host multiple high-grade gold quartz reefs proximal to existing underground development infrastructure.
The Dickenson South target area is one such primary target with multiple high-grade gold-bearing reefs, and proximity to surface and existing underground infrastructure.
Surface diamond drilling of the underground Dickenson South target began in late 2021, with initial results from the first holes reported in January 2022 and further results reported earlier in March 2022.
To date, 20 diamond drill holes have been completed for 3,147 metres, testing mineralised reefs including the Age of Progress, Stacpoole, Exhibition, Shamrock, Dickenson and Whitelaw reefs, between surface and Level 6 at the Morning Star mine.
Complementing the results previously reported for the first ten holes in the program, complete assay results have now been received for a further seven surface diamond drill holes.