Brightstar Resources’ high-grade Yunndaga hits highlight Menzies underground upside

Brightstar Resources’ Yunndaga drilling has returned wide zones of consistent high-grade gold mineralisation.

Consistent broad, high-grade gold hits at Yunndaga bode well for the underground potential of Brightstar’s Menzies hub. Pic: Getty Images

• Drilling at Yunndaga deposit confirms presence of high-grade gold

• Mineralisation contained in typical Menzies-style lodes with nuggetty high-grades, confirming underground upside

• Planned Phase 2 drilling will further test infill and extensional targets to grow and upgrade resource

Special Report: Fresh from upgrading resources across its Laverton and Menzies hubs, final results from Brightstar Resources’ drilling at Yunndaga deposit has confirmed further underground upside at Menzies.

Notable assays from the ~6100m reverse circulation drill program, which confirmed the presence of high-grade mineralisation in typical Menzies-style lodes with nuggetty high-grades and classic pinch-and-swell morphology include:

• 16m grading 8.03g/t gold from a down-hole depth of 220m including 1m at 33.6g/t from 222m and 4m at 13.5g/t from 228m;
• 13m at 4.7g/t gold from 167m including 2m at 22.6g/t from 176m; and
• 11m at 3.32g/t gold from 215m.

This Phase 1 drill program was intended to infill areas of the resource within or adjacent to optimised stope shapes and test for down-dip extensions to known mineralisation.

Yunndaga is 6km south of the Menzies township and forms part of Brightstar Resources’ (ASX:BTR) Menzies hub, which hosts a resource of 600,000oz at an average grade of 1.4g/t.

"Phase 1 assay results from Yunndaga drilling have surpassed our expectations,” managing director Alex Rovira said.

“Intersecting wide zones of consistent high-grade mineralisation is hugely exciting and affirms our focus on advancing Yunndaga as a near term underground mining opportunity at Menzies in parallel with our Lady Shenton open pit project in Menzies.

“We strongly believe we are only scratching the surface at Yunndaga. The historic mine workings to the south of the Yunndaga deposit extend to over 600m vertical depth, and with over 270koz mined at a grade of +16g/t Au historically, it clearly has high-grade tenor.

“Brightstar’s current optimised underground mine designs, based on the 2023 Scoping Study, are constrained to the top 200m from surface, and given the ore body is still open down plunge, the depth potential of the proposed mining is entirely limited by drilling to date.”

Long section of the Yunndaga deposit. Pic: Brightstar Resources

Menzies hub

The Menzies hub covers a contiguous land package over a strike length of more than 20km of greenstone belt and the Menzies Shear Zone.

It hosts a series of structurally controlled high-grade gold deposits that have been historically mined and display extensive exploration potential for high-grade extensions.

Historical production has been recorded at 643,200oz grading 22.5g/t gold from underground between 1895 and 1943 and a further 145,000oz at 2.6g/t from open cut operations between 1995 and 1999.

It is the focus of the current definitive feasibility study, which includes the Laverton and Menzies hubs, with the proposed multi-year Lady Shenton open pit being the initial production focus.

Watch: Brightstar carries on Indomitable Sandstone gold strikes

The DFS is expected to be released during H1 2025.

Earlier this week, the company flagged a 25% increase to the resource grade at Lady Shenton to 273,000oz at 1.5/t gold.

BTR’s recent Phase 1 confirmatory drilling was carried out largely within and adjacent to the optimised stope shapes.

“Phase 2 will see Brightstar follow up with both diamond and RC rigs mobilising in the coming weeks, which will further test infill and extensional targets seeking to grow the extents of the mineralisation and improve the quality of the resource to underpin future mine planning purposes,” Rovira said.

This article was developed in collaboration with Brightstar 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.