Bulgera, which sits along the same mafic-ultramafic mine sequence that hosts the 5.5 million ounce Plutonic deposit and Vango Mining's emerging 1Moz-plus Marymia mining centre, delivered 16m at 7.2 grams per tonne from 194m, including 3m at 30.3gpt from 210m, with the hole ending in mineralisation grading 18.5gpt.

 

A further hole, also targeted about 120m below Bulgera, returned 6m at 11.8gpt from 218m, including 3m at 22.4gpt.

 

The results were from drilling along strike and down-dip of the discovery hole that returned 5m at 15gpt from 194m in February.

 

The last group of assays were from a 5000m, 26-hole campaign that was completed in March, and focused on extending mineralisation beneath the historical Bulgera and Mercuri open pits.

 

CEO Charles Schaus said a picture was emerging of a shallow, wide, high-grade orebody below Bulgera.

 

Drilling below Mercuri intersected multiple low-to-moderate grade gold lodes over widths of 1-9m. 

 

The presence of multiple lodes suggests the potential to generate high tonnages per vertical metre, Schaus said.

 

Norwest secured the Bulgera project for A$200,000 from Accelerated Resources in 2019, and has increased resources to 93,000oz grading 1gpt so far, but there has been limited drilling below 100m.

 

Mineralisation along the Plutonic trend tends to improve at depth, so Norwest has decided to focus on down-dip drilling with its next campaign. 

 

Bulgera is adjacent to where Vango is aiming to develop a standalone mill, and 50km from Plutonic, where Superior Gold has excess milling capacity and is interested in third party ore.

 

The Bulgera and Mercuri pits that were last mined in 2004, with a reported 23,400oz grading 1.65gpt recovered. 

 

Norwest commenced a 6000m aircore drilling program at its own Marymia project, 8km south of Bulgera, testing a mix of gold, lead-zinc, and nickel targets. 

 

Shares in the junior have traded between 7.2-19c over the past year, and the stock was still up 50% this afternoon at 12c, valuing Norwest at $13 million.

 

The company opened the quarter with $2 million cash and no debt.