Caprice starts aircore drilling to test gold extensions, new targets at Island
Caprice Resources has started aircore drilling high-impact strike extensions to gold mineralisation at Vadrians as well as new targets.
Caprice kicks off 10,000m of aircore drilling at its Island gold project in WA's Murchison
The program is targeting extensions of Vadrians mineralisation and parallel BIF units
Company now has three rigs operating at the project
Special Report: Caprice Resources has kicked off the aircore component of its 20,000m, fourth phase drilling campaign at the Island gold project in WA’s Murchison Goldfields.
The 10,000m aircore drill program will target high-impact strike extensions to the Vadrians deposit and test parallel banded iron formations which represent new gold discovery targets.
These include:
- Land-based BIF trends along strike from Vadrians, parallel BIF units and peripheral contacts of the BIFs across the project area
- A concealed BIF unit beneath shallow Lake Austin cover between New Orient and Vadrians; and
- Concealed BIF units along the eastern and southern flanks of the Island project.
Caprice Resources (ASX:CRS) now has three rigs – one diamond, one reverse circulation and one aircore – operating across the Island project to define resources and find new mineralisation.
“Our Phase 4 drill campaign continues to gather momentum, with the air core rig now joining the RC and diamond rigs onsite,” CRS managing director Luke Cox said.
“This phase of drilling will systematically test for gold north and south of the Vadrians deposit, as well as adjacent gold-hosting BIFs that run parallel to the system.
“The work significantly expands our coverage across what is proving to be a highly fertile gold corridor within the Murchison.
“Looking further ahead, a particularly exciting lake-based air core drilling programme is scheduled to target the concealed BIF corridor beneath shallow colluvial cover and salt lake sediments.
“These areas have never been drilled despite lying within the same geological and structural corridor as our recently revealed gold systems.
“With deeper drilling continuing in parallel, the addition of the air core component will deliver a sustained period of news flow as we continue to unveil the IGP’s geological potential, situated on granted mining leases close to a number of operating mills in an environment of ongoing gold price strength.”
Island gold project
The Island project contains many historical gold mines of the Lake Austin gold mining centre.
Excitement has been high since the discovery of the Vadrians deposit with work to date defining mineralisation over a strike length of ~5km from the New Orient prospect in the north to the Ironclad prospect in the south and to a depth of ~300m.
This target corridor hosts multiple BIF units measuring up to 30m thick, with geological and structural features closely mirroring those of other high-grade gold deposits across the +15Moz Murchison Goldfields.
Recent drilling at Vadrians returned an intersection showing up to 100 gram-metres with strike extension results of up to 13m at 7.7g/t Au from 242m while infill drilling delivered a 10m hit grading 12.8g/t Au from 220m.
BIF units – known to be the primary gold host at Vadrians – are readily identifiable as high-density features within the Island project.
When subjected to shearing along Boogardie Break structures and mineralising fluid pathways, the BIF density decreases relative to surrounding rock, creating identifiable “breaks”.
This has allowed the company to use ground gravity data to model three major breaks from surface to ~600m depth.
The northern break is proximal to mineralisation at New Orient whilst the central break aligns with Vadrians.
The correlation between gold mineralisation and gravity low “break” targets enhances the company’s understanding of deposit controls and provides compelling targets for drill testing.
Shallow artisanal workings on the margins indicate a strong potential for new gold systems similar to Vadrians at the northern and southern breaks, which corresponds with two sparsely tested 1km long zones covered by thick lake sediment.
The next stage of this work involves integrating geological and structural constraints into the inversion model to refine targets for drill testing.
More from Caprice Resources: Striking gold at depth in the Murchison
Further activity
CRS intends to complete diamond drilling during Q4 2025 with assay results expected late this year and early 2026.
RC drilling will continue in parallel to provide a steady stream of batched results from across the mineralised corridor.
Data from RC and diamond drilling will feed directly into the maiden resource estimate while the aircore drilling will offer additional discovery pathways.
Integration of the recently acquired Comet gold project into the company’s broader Murchison exploration portfolio further enhances its district-scale gold potential and pipeline of drill targets for testing.
This article was developed in collaboration with Caprice Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
Originally published as Caprice starts aircore drilling to test gold extensions, new targets at Island
