Metals & Minerals News

New Ballarat pauses drilling for results at Victoria

New Ballarat Gold Corporation plc joint venture (JV) has paused drilling to await assay results from exploration in the Victorian gold fields, Australia.

Process: New Ballarat will be listed following results and the expected grant of the Daylesford exploration licence (Power Metal / New Ballarat Gold)

JOINT VENTURE

The JV comprises Red Rock Resources plc (50.1%) and Power Metal Resources plc (49.9%).

New Ballarat has a 100% interest in Red Rock Australasia Pty Ltd (RRAL).

INITIAL RESULTS

The company completed diamond drilling at two of its advanced prospects of Mt Bute and O’Loughlin’s, located 30km and 20km from the town of Ballarat.

The JV has received assays for the first two holes at O’Loughlin’s with the remainder expected before the end of Q2 2022. 

O’LOUGHLIN’S

Initial results confirm intersection of two gold-bearing lode structures including:

– 0.4 m at 12.34 g/t Au from 75.7m downhole
– 0.5m at 1.44 g/t Au from 50.6m downhole from hole OL21D002  

To date, the O’Loughlin’s extends for more than 2km along strike with a width of ~500m, comparable to the nearby Ballarat gold mine. 

New Ballarat plans additional drilling at O’Loughlin’s as well as an extensive soil sampling campaign to identify additional target zones.  

The initial results combined with the expected grant of exploration licence (EL7330) for Daylesford, which covers the historical Ajax mine, will enable New Ballarat to be listed.

NOTABLE

“At the O’Loughlin’s prospect [we] have already encountered high-grade gold from the initial assays we have received – with assays from an additional three holes still pending,” said RRAL exploration director David Holden.

“At the Mt Bute prospect the anomalous molybdenum and bismuth results initially identified by XRF test work suggests the possibility of an intrusive-related component to mineralisation. 

“We believe this implies the potential for larger and deeper gold-molybdenum-tungsten targets at Mt Bute – which has been substantiated by rock chips sampled here that returned notable gold results.”