Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has commenced a new drilling program aimed at obtaining further details on the promising Tolmer discovery made earlier this year at its Tarcoola project in South Australia.

Initially encountered during an expansive drilling program at Tarcoola in March, the discovery was confirmed in August with the receipt of high-grade assays verifying a newly interpreted gold-mineralised system, comprised of quartz sulphide veining hosted within broader zones of alteration.

The Tolmer find validated the first significant test of a new Tarcoola structural model, demonstrating the project’s broader potential to host multiple shallow, high-grade gold zones.

Tolmer strike

Barton is now undertaking an initial program of approximately 2,000m to test the potential strike of Tolmer alteration zone(s) in the vicinity of recent high-grade assay results, including intervals of 4.0m at 24.6 grams per tonne, 9.0m at 3.92g/t and 14m at 1.41g/t.

“We are steadily mapping out the commercial pathway for potential ‘Stage 1’ Tarcoola operations using our fully permitted Central Gawler Mill, followed by ‘Stage 2’ expansion into the adjacent 130,000-ounce-per-annum Tunkillia gold project with the construction of a second mill,” managing director Alexander Scanlon said.

“As each of these commercial platforms offers greater value to new regional mineralisation, we remain focused on unlocking the scale potential of our strategic asset package.”

Aircore program

Barton reported in early October that it was commencing a major regional aircore drilling program over previously untested sections of the Lake Labyrinth Shear Zone (LLSZ) at Tarcoola.

It was initially designed to comprise approximately 10,000m of aircore drilling.

That announcement came a day after follow-up drilling to the company’s July 2024 Tarcoola JORC mineral resource estimate (MRE) had confirmed new adjacent zones of shallow pit-floor gold mineralisation.

Perseverance open pit

Following the definition of a new shallow JORC MRE of approximately 20,000oz of gold at around 2g/t at Perseverance mine’s open pit-floor at Tarcoola, Barton completed another 10 holes (882m) of follow-up drilling in July 2024.

Assay results from this program confirmed another pit-floor gold zone to the east of the MRE block model.

The new aircore program is part of Barton’s range of ongoing activities aimed at bringing the historic Tarcoola gold project to commercialisation.