Okapi Resources commences drilling at Enmore Gold Project - TechInvest Magazine Online

Okapi Resources Limited (ASX:OKR) has commenced drilling at its Enmore Gold Project in north eastern NSW. The initial drill campaign consists of 8 -10 holes for a minimum of 1,000m of reverse circulation drilling to evaluate the two priority targets identified at the Sunnyside and Bora Prospects.

The majority of the initial holes are being drilled at the Sunnyside Prospect, with two holes planned for the Bora Prospect. One of the primary aims of the first pass drilling is to test the depth extent of shallow mineralisation reported from historic drilling at the two priority prospects. Despite extensive historic drilling at Enmore, there is limited deeper drilling with high gold grades associated with quartz veins and breccias previously returned in several deeper holes. The drilling programme will follow up on some of the historic high grade drill intercepts at the Sunnyside Prospect, including:

• 22m @ 2.66g/t gold from surface,
  • including 4m @ 11.94 g/t gold from surface (hole – SP3B),
• 20m @ 1.7 g/t gold from 18m,
  • including 4m @ 4.4 g/t Au from 21m (SP24E),
• 2m @ 14.6 g/t gold from 46m (hole SP13E).

Of the approximately 140 historic holes drilled at the Sunnyside Prospect, only 16 wide-spaced holes were drilled below the oxide mineralisation. These holes did not adequately explain the distribution of the shallow oxide gold. The structural preparation, potential for dilation and abundance of supergene gold provide a high-quality target for further drilling advancement.

Drilling is likely to be completed within two weeks with assays expected in the following weeks.

Okapi’s Executive Director, Mr David Nour said, “Within six months of acquiring Enmore, we are already on the ground drilling with approvals in place. This first drill programme is expected to show the potential of the project, given historical deeper drilling was wide-spaced and has not adequately accounted for the expected limited strike extent of high-grade shoots or their oblique orientation to the host lode structure. We look forward to the results and will advise shareholders as soon as they become available.”

Okapi’s initial drill programme aims to achieve several goals:

• Test volumes below shallow gold mineralisation (≤ 30m) intersected by historic shallow percussion drilling (20-30m) and the mineralisation intersected in deeper historic drill holes (120-160m).

• Planned drilling at Sunnyside aims to test extensions to anomalous gold mineralisation intersected at the end of historic drill holes (at Sunnyside East GR-SS1 ended at 151m in 0.26 g/t, and SS9 ended at 126m in 0.65 g/t Au; and at Sunnyside West, SS6 ended at 102m in 0.24 g/t Au).

• Drill untested structures at high angles (oblique and orthogonal) to the known trend of mineralisation.

Based on its geological interpretation of historical data, Okapi plans to target cross cutting structures at Enmore. Historical exploration at the site has targeted the dominant EW mineralised structures. Okapi recognised that the higher-grade sections at the nearby Hillgrove Antimony-Gold Mine are associated with the confluence of cross cutting NW-SE structures and the main EW structures.

At Enmore, this structural relationship has not yet been explored by drill testing and presents Okapi with a future exploration opportunity to target a similar structural setting.