ASX-listed aspiring gold developer, Calidus Resources, is on a roll at its Warrawoona gold project in Western Australia’s East Pilbara Region, with visible gold showing up in drill core that is yet to be analysed from its latest diamond drilling campaign.
The latest infill drilling numbers out of Warrawoona continue to reinforce the prospect of developing the project with RC drilling hits near-surface including 12m grading 5.58g/t gold from 12m down-hole and 36m grading 1.53g/t from 12m downhole in separate holes, with diamond drilling also intersecting visible gold.
The RC drilling is located inside the proposed Klondyke open pit and designed to upgrade the resource from ‘indicated’ to the higher confidence ‘measured’ category ahead of the company's definitive feasibility study being tabled.
Calidus Managing Director Dave Reeves said:“drilling continues to intersect wide, high-grade mineralisation in the planned open pit. These results are frequently above the current average pit grade of 1.4g/t … and they demonstrate excellent continuity of mineralisation.
This means the economic and technical outlook for Warrawoona continues to strengthen, with the potential returns growing and the risks falling”.
The company recently finished an 88-hole, 3881m infill RC drilling program and is still waiting on assays for 24 holes.
A diamond drill rig is currently testing the down-dip mineralisation potential below the base of the proposed Klondyke pit and three holes have intersected visible gold in the drill core, potentially providing a touch of excitement.
Currently, 17 diamond holes have been drilled at the project over 2017m, with a detailed geological analysis and assay results still outstanding
The quartz vein, where gold has been spied by the on-site geologists in the core, is very tightly folded, with the layers appearing to repeat on top of each other – known technically as an “isoclinal fold”. On a macro-scale, these isoclinal folds are repeated across the gold camp – this means there is the potential for the gold-bearing host rock horizons to be repeated elsewhere.
To that end, Calidus has embarked on a regional RC drilling program in addition to its infill program, designed to search for repetitions of the prospective ‘Kopcke’s Leader’ host rock horizon.
31 RC holes for 2626m have been drilled to-date regionally and results are also still outstanding.
Calidus’ PFS showed that Warrawoona should produce 100,000 ounces of gold per annum over an initial six-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD$1,159 per ounce. Those numbers equate to a healthy pre-tax cash flow of AUD$61m a year.
The company also recently defined a maiden ore reserve of 8.9 million tonnes grading 1.5g/t gold for just under 420,000 ounces of gold at the proposed Klondyke open pit and underground mining operation.
The project is now host to a total mineral resource of 1,248,000 ounces at 1.83g/t gold over a remarkable 5km of strike. The rods are still turning with the latest round of results strengthening the fundamentals of the project that looks like it has plenty of newsflow left in it.
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By Matt Birney
