A five-hole diamond drilling program to test an inflexion zone beneath historic gold mine workings has begun at the Calarie gold project, a joint venture in NSW between Godolphin Resources and Orange Minerals.
The phase 2 program, with a minimum of 1000m of drilling, is the follow-up to phase 1 of the campaign conducted late last year and described by Orange as “outstanding”.
Phase 1 results included 21m at 4.5 grams per tonne from 34m, including 1m at 48.77g/t from 42m.
The Calarie project is an earn-in joint venture with Godolphin, whereby Orange can earn up to 70 per cent of the project by spending $1.5 million.
Orange says phase 2 could demonstrate the significant upside potential of the Calarie project.
The aim is to test for potential extensions to high-grade mineralisation beneath old workings and historical drill holes.
One or two drill holes are also planned to verify previously drilled RC holes in preparation for calculating a maiden resource at the project.
Calarie, north of Forbes in central west NSW, comprises a mining lease and two exploration licences.
It lies in the Lachlan Fold Belt, or “LFB”— a rich gold-copper and rare earths province — and is surrounded by tenements owned by companies such as Fortescue Metals Group, Newmont and Sandfire Resources.
Besides Calarie, Godolphin has several exploration projects in its 3200 square kilometres of tenements in the region. These include Lewis Ponds, Yeoval, Copper Hill East and Narraburra — a recently acquired rare earths project.
Last week, Godolphin reported multiple zones of shear-hosted high-grade copper with coincident gold, silver and molybdenum mineralisation from the maiden drill hole at its historic Cyclops prospect on the Yeoval tenement.
Calarie is one of Orange’s two projects in NSW in its aggressive exploration program, the other being Wiseman Creek. It also has interests in WA’s eastern Goldfields.
Orange last week took a stake of almost 7 per cent in Godolphin, citing the share purchase as “an important strategic investment”.
If the phase 2 drilling program at Calarie continues to excite, it will help confirm to Orange the wisdom both of its JV with Godolphin Resources and its strategic investment in the fellow minerals company.
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By Matt Birney
