Western Australian-based junior Caprice Resources Ltd looks well on the way to becoming the newest player in one of WA’s historic gold fields.
In early April, ASX-listed Caprice Resources announced RC drilling at its Island Gold Project (IGP) ‒ located in the Murchison district some 630 kilometres north of Perth, 60km north of Mt Magnet and 20km south of Cue ‒ had returned exceptional thick, high grade yellow metal intersections from testing previously unrecognised, structurally controlled cross-cutting “Break of Day” analogue targets 12km to the south.
Significant gold intercepts at the Vadrians prospect include 11 metres at 6.7 grams/tonne from 1m downhole (an assay that contains 7m at 10.2g/t from 5m), 20m at 1.5g/t from 106m (with 8m at 2.6g/t from 118m) and 28m at 6.4g/t from 114m.
The company said phase two drilling had expanded Vadrians’ high grade gold mineralisation to 250m along strike and 100m up dip and 70m down dip of previously reported intercepts, including the above mentioned 28m at 6.4g/t and 27m at 3g/t from 48m.
This latest work, the junior told the market, delivered “outstanding gold mineralisation” 250m south of Vadrians.
Furthermore, it showed the mineralisation was open in all directions and contained a potential Vadrians repeat structure, with assays including 22m at 2.3g/t from 168m (including 2m at 9g/t from 178m) and 2m at 14.1g/t from 184m.
Meanwhile, significant extensional drilling at the Baxter prospect returned 10m at 3g/t from 13m (with 4m at 6.2g/t from 18m), 17m at 1.1g/t from 11m and 20m at 1g/t from 6m (including 10m at 1.6 g/t from 16m) as well as 4m at 5.4g/t from 102m.
As it stands, the explorer said, there is five kilometres of virtually untested highly prospective strike hosting numerous potential gold mineralised structures between the New Orient and Shamrock deposit historical gold workings, while over 30 highly prospective structural targets for high grade gold remain untested.
Existing shallow drill testing has been restricted to less than 100 vertical metres below the surface, and thus far has revealed the potential for multiple high grade gold discoveries along this corridor ‒ both near surface and at depth.
IGP is one of Caprice’s three Murchison gold projects. The others are the New Orient mine and Cuddingwarra, where field mapping and sampling has already taken place. It will soon be subjected to 2500m of air core drilling.
Combined, they cover around 240 sqkm in a goldfield which boasts a yellow metal endowment of over 15 million ounces.
Caprice chief executive Luke Cox said the company was now planning a 5000m phase three drilling program at IGP, which would continue testing the highly-prospective corridor through Golconda, Vadrians Hill and Vadrians North, before moving north to look at additional new cross-cutting structural high grade targets.
Ultimately, the objective of this field program is to deliver a significant maiden resource at IGP, which sits between Ramelius Resources Ltd’s and Westgold Resources Ltd’s gold processing facilities (at Mt Magnet and Tuckabianna respectively).
“Identical structural settings are present in historical workings evident from the New Orient gold mine in the north through to the Shamrock workings in the south, and these fertile structures have been mapped at multiple locations within the host banded iron formations (BIFs) along the 5km of strike connecting these workings,” Cox explained.
“Caprice’s geological interpretation has been validated and, with numerous additional greenfield gold targets along this trend, it highlights the potential for a significant maiden resource opportunity at our Island Gold project.”
IGP and all the surrounding gold mines are located within the north-south striking Meekatharra–Cue–Mt Magnet greenstone belt.
This area comprises a succession of steeply dipping and intensely deformed plus interlayered mafic and ultramafic extrusive and intrusive rocks, as well as felsic volcanics and BIFs hosting gold and other metals.
BIFs were mined from a number of small open pit and underground workings between 1897 and 1903.
The project was privately held between 1993 and 2020, with exploration limited to shallow RAB and RC drilling adjacent to historic workings.
Caprice acquired the land in 2020 with the aim of applying a modern and systematic exploration approach to unlock the full potential of the high grade gold mineralisation.
The company has lodged two new tenement applications adjoining the IGP, which will essentially double the total project area.
This land covers the continuation of the same greenstone lithologies and structures already seen, including outcropping BIFs.
