Ausgold Ltd. has begun a 32,000m drilling campaign at its Katanning gold project in in Western Australia as part of its aim to grow its 2.44-million-ounce gold resource.
The multi-rig program is designed to deliver resource growth across Ausgold’s 3,000km² of regional tenure in the south west.
Ausgold’s Executive Chairman John Dorward said: “This next phase of drilling marks an exciting step in Ausgold’s strategy to grow the existing 2.4-million-ounce resource base at Katanning, with newly-acquired freehold land opening up exciting opportunities to extend the known mineralisation at depth.”
“The program will also advance high-priority regional targets with strong potential to deliver satellite deposits to support mine life extensions.”
A second reverse circulation rig will be added in November, while a diamond rig is scheduled to mobilise in January 2026 to support deeper drilling.
The campaign will also de-risk early mine life by drilling within the high-margin payback period to support resource-to-reserve conversion. A majority of resource growth drilling will be undertaken from the company’s recently acquired 850 hectares of freehold land. This will allow Ausgold to test down-plunge and down-dip extensions of established lodes within the Central Zone.
Ausgold has also been awarded a grant by the Western Australian government’s Exploration Incentive Scheme of up to AU$180,000 to support its drilling program targeting high-grade down-plunge extensions. The grant complements Ausgold’s earlier co-funding grant of up to AU$180,000 to test for deep extensions at the high-grade Datatine Prospect.
In addition to resource expansion at Katanning’s central and southern zones, Ausgold is planning a 12,000m regional drilling program to test three high-priority targets, ranging from undrilled geochemical anomalies to defining the company’s first satellite resource.
