Barton Gold Holdings (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has completed an upgrade drilling campaign for two starter pits at its Tunkillia gold project in South Australia.
Kalgoorlie-based contractor Raglan Drilling completed 209 holes for a total 18,893 metres in October and finalised the campaign within 62 days, ahead of schedule and under budget.
The work aims to convert resources in the S1 and S2 pits to the Indicated category (and parts of S1 to Measured) to support future conversion to proven and probable reserves, as well as reinforce modelling confidence and support expedited project financing discussions.
Projected S1 Yield
An ++optimised scoping study++ released in May showed the S1 pit could yield 206,000 ounces gold at $997/oz, producing in excess of $800 million operating cash and repaying development costs twice over during the first year of operations.
The central portion of the pit contains a shallow, 300m-long zone of high-grade gold mineralisation within a broad zone of bulk open-pittable mineralisation.
Past drilling by Barton and others delivered broad, high-grade assays such as 10m at 15.7 grams per tonne gold from 54m, 9m at 6.57g/t gold from 72m, 17m at 5.9g/t gold from 79m, and 15m at 7.64g/t gold from 100m.
Barton has Phase 2 reverse circulation drilling planned for early in the new year at Tunkillia to target conversion of remaining open pit mineralisation to indicated category.
Diamond drilling will infill and expand geotechnical and metallurgical data to support further pit design optimisation and feasibility studies.
High-Grade Zone
Managing director Alex Scanlon said the company was pleased to have identified some of the project’s highest grades in the S1 shallow central zone.
“We have already been approached by multiple prospective development and finance partners, and believe upgrading this area to measured category will underwrite confidence in this profile while we evaluate the optimal path forward,” he said.
“We would like to thank the Raglan Drilling team for their professionalism and co-ordination in delivering the Phase 1 program safely, under budget, and well ahead of schedule.”
