56-hole AC campaign tests Perseverance, A1, A4, Cooper Well, and Korong Syenite for ounce growth beyond existing deposits. First assays expected mid-Q3.
Verity Resources (ASX: VRL) has started a 56-hole aircore drilling program at the Monument gold project in Western Australia, testing a 9km undrilled banded iron formation (BIF) corridor that hosts the existing 138,000-ounce resource. The campaign is designed to shift from resource definition to discovery of new ounces, covering 2,800 metres across five priority targets: Perseverance, A1, A4, Korong Syenite, and Cooper Well.
The aircore method is lower-cost than reverse circulation but can struggle with hard BIF lithologies. Verity’s earlier RC success at Perseverance and A1 reduces, though does not eliminate, penetration risk.
**Perseverance is defined by a strong outcropping BIF horizon that returned a peak historical rock-chip grade of 21.5 gold/t over 1.4 km of strike. Lag-soil sampling approximately 150m east of the BIF outcrop returned 4,920 parts per billion gold. RC drilling earlier this year returned 2m at 1.24g/t gold from 86m and 2m at 0.73g/t gold from 66m, confirming the targeted host stratigraphy.
A1 sits along strike to the north-west of Korong. Four RC holes for 300m in late 2025 returned 2.9m at 2.51g/t gold from 8m and 1.9m at 1.29g/t gold from 8m in the BIF. Historical rock chips along the BIF outcrop returned 4.48g/t gold, anchoring the southern end of the 9km corridor.
A4 sits midway between A1 and Perseverance. Only past rock-chip sampling of the BIF outcrop exists, returning approximately 1g/t gold. The aircore program is the first systematic drilling there.
Cooper Well hosts significant historic workings but has never been drill tested. It lies along strike from Genesis Minerals (ASX: GMD) 34,000-ounce McKenzie Well deposit, offering a possible lateral connection that could extend the mineralised trend.
The Korong Syenite is an intrusive body located 1.5km east of the Korong deposit. A 26-hole Phase 1 aircore campaign in 2021 returned 4m at 1.38g/t gold from surface, with end-of-hole multi-element geochemistry confirming a fractionated signature consistent with district-scale gold-fertile syenite systems. analogues.
Verity classifies the Korong Syenite as part of a fractionated suite analogous to major syenite-hosted gold systems:
Gold Fields carries an Alpha Score of 65/100 (Moderate) on AlphaScala’s stock page. If the Korong Syenite drilling returns geochemistry consistent with these analogues, Verity’s resource upside could move from thousands to millions of ounces.
The aircore program is expected to run several weeks. Assay results typically take 4-6 weeks from sample dispatch, placing first releases around mid-Q3 2026. Volpe said the campaign aims to “prove the potential for further resource ounce growth at Monument.”
For traders tracking ASX gold explorers, Monument is a high-conviction catalyst with high variance. The 9km corridor outside the existing resource remains completely untested. If the aircore program returns multiple intercepts above 1g/t, the resource base could grow significantly. A miss would leave Verity with only the existing 138,000 ounces. The broader gold profile and commodities analysis pages on AlphaScala track the macro vantage for Australian gold equities.
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