TNM Drill Down: Red 5 leads week’s top assays with Darlot project in Australia

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence.

Projects in Australia and Canada led drilling results for the period of Dec. 16 – 22.

Red 5 (ASX: RED) earned the week’s top grade x width at its Darlot project in the Yilgarn area 850 km northeast of Perth, Australia. Drill hole CAD0774 at the Centurion lode cut 1.1 metres from 178.5 metres down hole grading 1,521.5 grams gold per tonne for a grade x width of 1,673.65. Hole CAD0778 returned 0.9 metre grading 28 grams gold from a depth of 166.9 metres. 

The assays are from stope de-risking, resource development and exploration programs to extend new mining areas at Darlot, the company said in a Dec. 20 news release. 

“Darlot continues to deliver impressive drill results, providing confidence in our mine plan for the 2023 and 2024 financial years and indicating strong potential for ongoing resource and reserve growth,” Red 5 managing director Mark Williams said. 

“We have seen some very high-grade results from existing mining areas such as Middle Walters South and Burswood, as well as excellent results from unmined areas such as Dar-Cent and the adjacent Centurion lode.” 

The Centurion lode sits on the footwall of the Dar-Cent ore body and is bounded by the Burswood and Moses faults and the regional lamprophyre to the north, Red 5 says. Assays show potential for extending the resource to the south-west, it says. 

Red 5’s big milestone this year was the June startup of its main project, the King of the Hills open pit and underground gold mine with a plant processing 4.7 million tonnes a year. The Darlot mine became an underground satellite mine to King of the Hills, and the company suspended the Darlot process plant.

Darlot produced 64,667 oz. in the year to June 30, and the company sold 64,315 oz. for A165 million ($151.6 million) during the year for a net loss after tax of A$28.6 million. 

In the quarter to Sept. 30, Red 5 increased gold output to 26,710 oz. at King of the Hills compared with 8,586 oz. in the previous three months. The company updated its King of the Hills ore reserve with a 12.5% increase to 2.7 million ounces. 

Snowline Gold (TSXV: SGD) snagged second place in our rundown this week with drilling at its Rogue project in eastern Yukon near the Northwest Territories. Hole V-22-032 in the Valley zone cut 338 metres from 91.6 metres down hole grading 1.32 grams gold per tonne for a grade x width of 446.16. The hole included a 207-metre intercept grading 1.76 grams gold from 126 metres downhole.

“The latest results from Valley continue to demonstrate substantial scale and strong grades for a reduced intrusion-related gold system,” Scott Berdahl, chief executive officer and director of Snowline, said in a Dec. 22 news release. “The shape, the size, and the distribution of grades that we’re seeing at Valley—with many of the highest grades encountered to date starting at surface—bode very well for the potential economics of the discovery.”

Snowline describes Rogue’s Valley Zone as a bulk tonnage style reduced intrusion-related gold system with geological similarities to Kinross Gold’s (TSX: K; NYSE: KGC) Fort Knox mine in Alaska and Victoria Gold’s (TSX: VGCX) Eagle mine in the Yukon, both multi-million-oz. deposits in production. 

However, Snowline says significant additional work is needed to determine if the Rogue site contains an ore body worth mining. There’s no resource estimate so far.  

Brixton Metals (TSXV: BBB) rounds out the top three this week with assays from the Trapper target at its Thorn copper-gold project in northwest British Columbia. 

Hole THN22-255 cut 262 metres from 12 metres down hole grading 1.04 grams gold per tonne for a grade x width of 272.48. It included 147.1 metres grading 1.59 grams, 75.49 metres grading 2.35 grams and 6.93 metres grading 7.16 grams. Hole THN22-254 returned 102 metres from 4 metres depth grading 1.02 grams, including 39 metres grading 2.11 grams and 8 metres grading 5.6 grams. 

“We are encouraged by the broad near surface gold intercepts on the Trapper gold target,” Christina Anstey, vice president of exploration, said in a Dec. 20 news release. “Gold mineralization including visible gold observed in the quartz diorite host has significantly increased the scale of the Trapper target which remains open in all directions.” 

Giant BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP; ASX: BHP) bought about a fifth of Brixton last month for $13.6 million to help advance Thorn. This year’s drill program included 58 holes at Thorn. Assays from 19 holes at Trapper are pending.