Barton Gold has already completed 7,500 metres of drilling as it explores satellite deposits to bolster the gold resource at the Tunkillia project in South Australia.

The Adelaide-based gold explorer says it expects to issue “multiple” mineral resource updates during the last months of this year and into early 2024.

Barton is developing the historic Tarcoola goldfield project near the junction of the trans-continental and Darwin railway lines and, 70km to the south, the unmined Tunkillia project which had a JORC resource in place when the company listed on the ASX.

In addition, Barton owns the region’s only gold ore processing mill, the Challenger plant (as well as the mothballed Challenger mine which is not deemed a priority).

Drilling of extensions at key targets

So far, the company has completed 7,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) and 500m of diamond drilling.

This work was carried out on extensions of the 1.15 million-ounce 223 deposit, as well as satellite gold zones 223 North, Area 191 and Area 51.

The company says priority RC drilling includes northern, southern and central extensions of the current 223 deposit block model, to be the basis of a new mineral resource estimate this year.

Key 223 MRE update by end of 2023

Managing director Alex Scanlon said the company is prioritising and grouping drilling and assays for comprehensive updates to the market.

These will be aimed at producing multiple near-term JORC updated before the end of fiscal 2024 in June.

“Drilling is proceeding at pace and we expect to complete all planned drilling on the 223 deposit, satellite gold zones, and regional targets by the end of 2023,” he said.

Three rigs are now on site testing the estimated 38 million tonnes at 0.94 grams per tonne Tunkillia gold resource.

Large untested strike length

Barton has so far identified more than 20km of untested strike over its 1,360 square kilometre tenement package.

The 223 deposit was discovered during 1996 and, since 2000, most of the historic drilling has been focused on infill drilling of that deposit.

Shallow historical drilling has also uncovered the potential for extensive mineralisation and has identified multiple local satellite targets.

This historical drilling is now set to be tested with the new program.