Dreadnought Resources has commenced reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Metzke’s Find prospect within its 100-per-cent-owned Illaara gold project in Western Australia’s Yilgarn region.
The campaign will consist of approximately 60 holes for around 4900 metres, targeting extensions to the existing resource and upgrades to higher confidence categories as the company pushes toward potential production.
Metzke’s Find currently hosts a 2023 mineral resource estimate of 14,900 ounces at 6.8 grams per tonne gold, with around 72 per cent classified as indicated, highlighting the deposit’s high-grade nature.
“We now have two rigs at Illaara, an air core rig which is advancing our largest exploration drilling program to date, and now an RC rig focused on adding ounces to and upgrading the Metzke’s Find Resource,” Tuck said.
“A key focus of our Finding More Gold Faster Strategy is to rapidly advance Metzke’s Find towards production.
“This drilling program will result in an updated resource, which will form the foundation of initial studies.”
The program will test mineralisation along strike and at shallow depths in an effort to grow the resource base and convert additional ounces into the indicated category.
Metzke’s Find contains a series of historical workings stretching across approximately 700 metres of strike, with around 20 small shafts dating back to early prospecting activity in the early 1900s.
More recent drilling by Dreadnought has extended mineralisation roughly 250 metres north of the historic workings, demonstrating the potential for further growth.
The Illaara project itself spans roughly 800 square kilometres and around 70 kilometres of greenstone belt, located about 190 kilometres from Kalgoorlie in the prolific Yilgarn Craton.
“We believe that our high-grade Metzke’s Find Resource is a great opportunity to expand production beyond the Star of Mangaroon,” Tuck said.
“With two rigs, we look forward to a steady stream of news flow throughout the year from both resource focused RC drilling and first pass air core drilling.”
Dreadnought acquired the Illaara project from Newmont in 2019 and has since consolidated the broader greenstone belt through a series of acquisitions, positioning the company to undertake modern exploration across the region.