Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has commenced a drilling campaign aimed at further expanding the company’s Tunkillia gold project in South Australia.

The program is testing targets below and adjacent to the current mineral resource estimate (MRE) block model at the historic mine site.

The drilling will focus on two key ‘near-mine’ opportunities for expansion of the open-pit design and mine life.

New targets

Two new targets were identified in a review of the March 2024 MRE block model in conjunction with an examination of the July 2024 initial scoping study.

The areas identified are just below the July 2024 optimised open pit, where drilling intersected mineralisation excluded from the MRE block model due to an insufficient number of data points.

The new reverse circulation drilling is targeting extensions on lodes parallel to and depth extensions of the July 2024 optimised pit design.

These are areas where gold mineralisation has been intersected in prior drilling but not yet included in the MRE block model.

LoM schedule

Managing director Alexander Scanlon said the targets represent an opportunity to add further ounces to the MRE block model, optimise the open-pit design and add new bulk-efficient mineralisation tonnes into the life-of-mine (LoM) schedule.

“Tunkillia has demonstrated its potential as a competitive large-scale gold producer based upon conservative assumptions relating to comminution design, power consumption, the development schedule and procurement,” Mr Scanlon said.

“We are now reviewing optimisation of these assumptions in parallel with selective drilling to reduce processing costs, expand the MRE block model, grow the optimised pit, extend project life and improve the project’s economics.”

Barton reported an updated 1.5 million ounces of gold Tunkillia MRE earlier this year, followed by an initial scoping study outlining competitive production of around 130,000 ounces per annum of gold with an all-in sustaining cost of approximately $1,917/oz, a 40% equity internal rate of return and a 1.9-year payback driven by a higher-grade ‘starter pit’ producing approximately 180,000oz of gold during the first 18 months.

The company is currently undertaking an optimisation review targeting key cost drivers.

Tolmer follow-up

Barton is accelerating its two-project gold developments in South Australia, commencing a new drilling program earlier this month to follow up the promising Tolmer discovery at its nearby Tarcoola project.

Tolmer was confirmed in August with the receipt of high-grade assays verifying a newly interpreted gold-mineralised system comprising quartz sulphide veining hosted within broader zones of alteration.

Those assays indicated a gold system characterised by multiple broad zones of alteration containing higher-grade quartz sulphide veining.

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.