Okapi Resources says wet weather won’t stop the ASX-listed junior explorer completing the maiden drilling program at its Enmore gold project in New South Wales within the next two weeks. Nearly 770m in six of 8-10 planned holes have been drilled so far as the company follows up promising drill results from 20 years ago at two priority target areas along a 2.5km fault structure on the mineral-rich New England Fold belt.
The encouraging historical drill hits include a high-grade 4m intersection going 11.94 g/t gold from surface within a 22m intercept grading at 2.66 g/t.
Another 2m hit from surface came in at 14.6 g/t gold from surface and a further 8m section, also from surface graded at 3 g/t.
Management says assessment of the Sunnyside and Bora targets at Enmore has so far produced encouraging indications of pyrite and arsenopyrite in Sunnyside East hole logging, prompting it to add two further RC holes and drill deeper. The rig will move onto Sunnyside West, about 400m along strike from its current location, to wrap up the current campaign.
Okapi says wet conditions have slowed the initial program, however better weather is expected to ease rig accessibility and mobility barriers.
The drilling is aimed at testing previously intercepted shallow, high-grade mineralisation at depth and provide a better understanding of local trends and the orientation of the gold mineralised zones. Okapi sees geological similarities with the nearby Hillgrove gold-antimony deposit and its 692,000 ounces of gold going at 4.3 g/t and 75,000 tonnes of antimony grading 1.5 per cent Sb, now in the hands of ASX-listed Red River Resources.
Other notable historical drill hits along the 2.5km Sunnyside fault structure include 20m grading 1.7 g/t gold from 18m, including 4m at 4.4 g/t from 21m and 10m at 2.8 g/t from surface including 2m grading 6.2 g/t from 8m.
Okapi says gold mineralisation typically occurs in vertical to sub-vertical structures with an overall east-northeast trend, however interpreted mineralised cross-cutting structures haven’t yet been adequately tested.
Of about 200 historical drill holes completed at Enmore that produced 347,500 ounces of gold, predominantly from the Sherwood mine up to 1940, Okapi says few penetrated below the oxide mineralisation level. Data from the holes did not adequately explain the distribution of shallow oxide gold.
Meanwhile, Okapi has extended the due diligence period for its proposed acquisition of kaolin halloysite projects and more than 2,100 square kilometres of exploration tenure in South Australia and Western Australia to July 31 this year.
A deal to acquire private resource group Bulk Mineral Holdings and its White Knight and Holly halloysite prospects was announced last month.
White Knight is adjacent to halloysite developer Andromeda Metals’ Great White project on SA’s Eyre Peninsula. Holly is south-west of Latin Resources’ high-profile Noombenberry discovery in southern WA.
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By Matt Birney
