Karora Resources Inc. has provided an update on drilling activities at its Beta Hunt Mine, including new high-grade gold and nickel drilling intercepts over wide zones at Western Flanks North.
Drilling on the northern margin of the Western Flanks resource has discovered new gold mineralization in the footwall striking parallel to and at the top of the existing resource. The new mineralized zone, which has a strike length of over 160 metres, remains open to the north and up-dip, and occurs beneath the basalt / ultramafic contact where new high grade nickel mineralization has also been discovered.
Paul Andre Huet, Chairman & CEO, commented: "Following a short pause in drilling at Beta Hunt due to COVID-19 precautions, we now have two drills operating full time on both gold and nickel targets. We are extremely pleased to announce the early success in expanding our potential mineral resource base. Our drilling in the Western Flanks shear zone, which is one of two gold production zones at Beta Hunt, has returned very strong results to the north, upgrading the existing resource and expanding the known mineralization with the discovery of a new footwall zone. Encouragingly, both of our production zones, Western Flanks and A Zone, remain open to the north and at depth.
Our restarted drilling has also returned some very strong nickel drilling results which sit just above the gold zone at the basalt / ultramafic contact. These strong nickel intercepts could expand our potential nickel resource base and build the case for continued robust nickel by-product credits to our gold AISC costs at Beta Hunt.
Given the excellent results in our early drilling at Beta Hunt, we have increased our underground drilling budget by 4,100 metres. We plan to continue to test the Western Flanks zone to the north, with the aim of adding up to another 280 metres of strike and 80 metres of depth to the zone.
At Higginsville we were also busy during the period where drilling was paused due to COVID-19 precautions. We recently received the results of a regional gravity survey over a large area of HGO ground which has very little historical exploration. Although still at an early stage, a preliminary review of the data has identified multiple gold targets including typical Higginsville-style primary deposits and potentially large scale paleochannel deposits. A detailed desktop study is underway to rank these target areas to allow for systematic, priority-based drill testing later this year. It is evident from the gravity survey and ongoing exploration target definition that the Higginsville area has one of the most exciting unexplored land packages within the region. We are also continuing an aggressive drill program at HGO with two drills currently turning and plan to add additional drilling capacity in the near future.
Overall I am extremely pleased with our team's response to the necessary restrictions in place during the first half of the year and look forward to continued drilling results as we get back to exploration drilling at both of our properties."
The Western Flanks North drilling program totaled 36 holes for 6,779 metres comprised of both resource definition and grade control holes. Drilling tested over 240 metres of strike and was aimed at upgrading the existing Inferred mineral resource at the top of northern end of the Western Flanks Resource Model.