First it was nickel, now gold, for Sirius Resources (SIR) which continues to reveal intriguing exploration results in WA.
Sirius shares jumped sharply in reaction to the Tuesday announcement of high gold readings from a new area of interest in the eastern goldfields of WA.
The shares jumped more than 7% on Tuesday. The shares then rose a further 2.7% yesterday to $2.58, but fell 0.3% to $2.49 on profit taking.
Sirius came to attention last year after finding more nickel sulphides in the Fraser Range region of WA. One of those strikes is in the process of being turned into a small, very low cost nickel mine, with some copper mineralisation as well.
Now Sirius said it had found grades of gold as high as 8.68 grams a tonne beneath a salt lake between Coolgardie and Norseman.
The announcement revealed a 33-metre stretch of 3.81 grams a tonne.
Known as the Baloo prospect, the discovery is part of Sirius’s broader Polar Bear nickel sulphide project, which sparked a 14% rise in Sirius shares when it was discovered six months ago.
SIR 1Y – Sirius shares jump again on another discovery
Sirius managing director Mark Bennett said further drilling would follow the discovery.
“We have been looking forward to drilling this area for long time, given it is one of our top targets,” he said in this week’s statement.
"It was unexplored. It had been out of bounds during the modern era of gold exploration, and it is in a district with approximately 30 million ounces of gold discovered in relative proximity to the north, west and south of us.
"This is the first drilling to test Sirius’ gold targets in this area. It has never been drilled before due to being located beneath Lake Cowan salt lake on tenements that were until recently held up in a 15 year application process. Much of the surrounding known gold endowment has been discovered whilst this ground was quarantined in this application process,” he said.
The discovery is separate to the company’s Nova nickel project, which is the company’s first mine after its discovery in mid 2012. Construction and development of the Nova project will begin soon, after Sirius secured a $440 million finance package in December.
The new strike is located approximately 10 kilometres from an operating gold mine (Higginsville) in a district which has had approximately 30 million ounces of gold discovered in relative proximity to the north, south and west
Sirius said the results from "reconnaissance aircore drilling undertaken in late 2014 have confirmed the best zone of gold mineralisation yet identified on the Polar Bear project”.
From the company’s statement, the 500 metre strike length defined so far is open along strike both north and south; gold associated with thick zone of quartz veins; eight drill holes end in gold mineralisation, with three of these grading 4-8g/t gold.
