
Duketon Mining's maiden drilling at the Barlee gold project in WA returned 24m at 0.79 g/t gold, validating geochemical targets. Managing director Stuart Fogarty said results exceeded expectations.
Duketon Mining (ASX:DKM) hit gold in its first-ever drill program at the Barlee project in Western Australia. The maiden reverse-circulation and aircore holes returned multiple intercepts that managing director Stuart Fogarty said "exceeded our expectations."
Hole 26BAR005 at the Astro prospect returned 24 metres at 0.79 grams per tonne gold from 24 metres, including 12 metres at 1.29 g/t. A second hole 400 metres to the south, 26BAC025, hit 7 metres at 0.74 g/t from 76 metres, including a metre at 4.68 g/t at the bottom of the hole.
At the Gromit prospect, aircore assays showed anomalous mineralisation. Hole 26BAC068 returned 4 metres at 0.53 g/t and 8 metres at 0.27 g/t. RC holes on either side of that aircore line have intersected quartz veining, with assays still pending.
The company has received 1,000 assays from a total of 1,900 samples – covering the shallow aircore holes and five of the 26 RC holes completed.
Fogarty said the results validate the soil geochemistry program that identified the targets. "The broad zones of gold mineralisation intersected at the Astro Prospect, including 24 metres at 0.8g/t gold and 8 metres at 0.8g/t gold in hole 26BAR005, are particularly encouraging given the Project has never previously been drilled and remains open in all directions."
He noted that mineralisation has now been identified on multiple drill lines, with significant gold 400 metres south of the main discovery, "demonstrating the emerging scale of the system."
At Gromit, Fogarty said the anomalous gold results and quartz veining in adjacent RC holes provide encouragement ahead of the remaining assay results.
About 70% of Duketon's tenure remains untested by modern UFF geochemistry. Another 12 kilometres of prospective strike to the south is covered by tenement applications awaiting grant.
Fogarty said the company looks forward to receiving the remaining assays over the coming days and resuming follow-up drilling to systematically test the growing mineralised footprint at both Astro and Gromit.
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