Gold explorer Brightstar Resources has delivered its best-ever drill hit at Western Australia’s Sandstone gold project, returning a massive 305-metre bulk intercept grading 2.66 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from deep diamond drilling at the Two Mile Hill-Shillington deposit.
The standout intersection from hole TMHDD26005, totalling more than 800 gram-metres, was recorded from 503 metres downhole and included several high-grade internal zones, notably four metres at 60.8 g/t gold and 5.5 metres at 25.2 g/t gold.
A second deep hole, TMHDD26004, drilled 50 metres to the south to test the Shirvington Zone at depth, also intersected broad mineralisation within the host tonalite. It returned two wide zones: 80 metres at 2.64g/t gold from 499 metres, incorporating a one-metre bonanza hit of 160g/t gold, and 240 metres at 1.16g/t gold from 601 metres.
The mineralised intervals in both holes extend well beneath the deposit’s current 1.45-million-ounce mineral resource estimate, expanding the known width of the gold-bearing tonalite unit to more than 400 metres at depth and pointing to substantial resource growth upside.
Brightstar Managing Director Alex Rovira said the assays confirm the “vast scale potential” of the Two Mile Hill system, which forms part of the wider 3.6-million-ounce Sandstone project.
“This deep diamond drilling was designed to define the extent of the Shirvington Zone and assess the grade continuity at depth. What we have seen produced are wide, bulk intercepts of impressive gold grades,” Rovira said.
“The standout result from these latest assays is 305m at 2.66g/t gold in TMHDD26005. On a gram-metre basis, this is our biggest-ever intercept at Sandstone, totalling over 800 gram-metres.”
Assays remain pending for the fourth and final hole of the 3,800-metre-deep diamond program, TMHDD26006.
Meanwhile, a two-rig, 6,500-metre follow-up drilling campaign is already underway to test extensions of the Shirvington Zone along strike and at depth, and to pinpoint the western boundary of the host tonalite.
