Brightstar Resources Limited (ASX: BTR) (Brightstar) is pleased to announce the commencement of its inaugural drilling program at the recently acquired1 Montague East Gold Project (Montague), located 70km north of Sandstone in Western Australia’s Murchison region.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Brightstar has commenced a ~6,000m Reverse Circulation drilling program at the Montague East Gold Project, targeting depth extensions and infill resource drilling at the Montague-Boulder and Whistler deposits
- Montague-Boulder and Whistler are the largest two deposits at Montague, with a combined gold resource of 4.7Mt at 1.8g/t Au for 283koz Au
- The program will take approximately four weeks to complete, before mobilising the drill rig to complete a planned drilling program at Alto’s Sandstone Project upon anticipated merger completion in December
- Brightstar has also executed a Heritage Protection Agreement between Watarra Aboriginal Corporation and Brightstar Resources over the Menzies Gold Project
With past production in the 1990’s at several deposits across Montague, modern exploration has defined a global resource of 526koz Au which includes a considerable component of shallow oxide material2 which is being targeted for resource growth and preliminary drilling ahead of feasibility study workstreams which are planned to occur during 2025.
Brightstar’s Managing Director, Alex Rovira, commented“With the recent completion of our significant drilling programs across our Goldfields assets in Menzies and Laverton, our exploration efforts are now focused on the Murchison assets located in the Sandstone region. With a +500koz gold endowment across the Montague East Gold Project, we look forward to targeting the largest two deposits which include the 163koz Au Montague-Boulder deposit, and the 120koz Au Whistler deposit.
We believe these assets have a strong possibility of resource growth, and our drill programs are targeting lode extensions at depth and also infilling key areas to provide additional geological information on these deposits to increase mineral resource classification confidence. With a past production of ~150koz, the Montague East Gold Project is a key part of our Sandstone consolidation strategy and our broader aspirations of building a multi-asset and meaningful WA gold mining business.”
Next steps
Brightstar will announce drilling information and assays as this is received, including the outstanding results from the Fish and Lord Byron diamond drilling programs along with RC drilling from the Montague program.
Concurrently with these drilling programs, work continues on the Definitive Feasibility Study and near-term development of mining operations at the Jasper Hills deposit.
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