Saturn Metals has kicked off a 10,000-metre reverse circulation drilling campaign at its Aquarius gold prospect in Western Australia’s Leonora Gold District, aiming to unlock a second major production centre near its Apollo Hill deposit.
Aquarius spans a 26.5-kilometre mineralised trend defined by widely spaced historical aircore drilling. Because deeper testing across the corridor remains limited, mineralisation stays open down-plunge and in multiple directions.
The maiden program will follow up on encouraging historical intercepts drilled by Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania, including 36 metres at 1.25 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 102 metres, 33 metres at 1.27g/t gold from 78 metres, and 16 metres at 1.72g/t gold from 228 metres.
Geologically, Aquarius sits within volcanic rocks and intrusive quartz porphyries interpreted as lateral equivalents to the sequence hosting Northern Star Resources’ Carosue Dam and Porphyry gold mines, located 35 to 65 kilometres further along strike to the south-east.
Drilling is scheduled to continue through to the holiday break and resume in the first quarter of 2027, with assay results released progressively.
Saturn Managing Director Ian Bamborough said the campaign marks an important step in expanding the company’s gold inventory across its contiguous 1,000-square-kilometre tenement package.
“Aquarius has all the hallmarks of a significant gold camp, with widely spaced, broad and higher-grade historical drill intersections defining a mineralised trend that extends over 26.5km,” Bamborough said.
“While Apollo Hill remains our flagship development priority, we see enormous potential to build on that foundation through exploration success across our broader tenement package.
“The opportunity to establish a second gold centre at Aquarius, just 30km from Apollo Hill, is particularly exciting and could provide an important new avenue to expand our production profile beyond the already material, long-life operation we are establishing at Apollo Hill.”
