- 01Brightstar begins 6,500m of Two Mile Hill drilling.
- 02Targets Shirvington Zone extensions below and along strike.
- 03$82m raising to accelerate Sandstone work.
Brightstar Resources (ASX: BTR) has commenced a new phase of extensional diamond drilling with a view to unlocking further growth at the Two Mile Hill-Shillington deposit within its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia.
The first of two drilling rigs has been mobilised to site for the seven-hole, 6,500-metre campaign designed to extend the Shirvington Zone along strike and at depth, beneath the current mineral resource estimate of 24.6 million tonnes grading 1.8 grams per tonne for 1.45 million ounces gold.
The zone was first identified by drilling in September that returned a bulk, unconstrained intercept of 305.4m at 1.82g/t gold and confirmed at depth by another hole, which returned 305m at 1.33g/t gold from 584m.
The new campaign will drill to the south of these holes to target the undefined western contact of the mineralised tonalite, now approximately 400m wide and open at depth.
All results will feed into an updated mineral resource estimate for Two Mile Hill and the Sandstone pre-feasibility study, both expected in the current quarter.
Two Mile Hill Potential
Managing director Alex Rovira said Two Mile Hill had the potential to support a large-scale bulk underground mining operation that could underpin a long-life Sandstone development scenario.
“Our September mineral resource estimate showed contained ounces per vertical metre increasing materially as a result of the breadth of the Shirvington Zone at depth, and the first deep hole confirmed that the tonalite stays mineralised beneath the resource at grades consistent with the model,” he said.
“This latest campaign is designed to test continuity and define the edges of the host tonalite at depth and reflects our confidence in the geology.
“The holes have been planned to extend the Shirvington Zone to the south, north, and at depth, and to delineate down the western contact of the tonalite, which our previous program failed to reach despite the holes being extended beyond target depth.”
New Capital Raising
Brightstar has received binding commitments from institutional and strategic investors for an $82 million capital raising to accelerate work programs at the Sandstone project.
The company will issue 164 million shares priced at $0.50 each including 60 million shares to WA gold producer and current shareholder Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD) for a cornerstone $30m investment.
This follows a $193m raising earlier this year to fund workstreams associated with Sandstone’s pre-feasibility and definitive feasibility studies, work Mr Rovira said the results of had “fundamentally changed” the scale of the opportunity.
“The true size of Sandstone is quickly emerging, which now warrants a faster and larger work program than we scoped at the start of the year,” he said.
“This capital raising allows us to fast-track our exploration workstreams to define and enhance what an enlarged Sandstone development will look like—it will fund increased infill and extensional drilling at Two Mile Hill, as well as additional drill testing of the multiple Two Mile Hill analogue targets.”
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