It adds up to more evidence of the resource potential of its Side Well project, near Meekatharra, Western Australia.

 

This morning the explorer delivered assays that appear to confirm a discovery of a new lode has been identified some 90m east of the Mulga Bill High-Grade Vein, with drilling the untested area in fresh rock returning 6m at 25.8 grams per tonne from 268m, below 8m at 5.51gpt from 110m, including 4m at 8.93gpt.

 

Great Boulder managing director Andrew Paterson also flagged an intersect of 3m at 7.03gpt from 101m, testing the gap between the main Mulga Bill zone and Mulga Bill HGV.

 

"We are hoping to define a new zone in that area to improve continuity of mineralisation between the two high-grade areas," he said.

 

Other significant intersections from Mulga Bill drilling included 8m at 54.6gpt from 120m.

 

Yesterday Great Boulder also released the results of auger sampling, suggesting the potential for the yellow metal to be found over 7km of strike extending south from the Ironbark discovery, confirming multiple untested anomalies with similarities to Mulga Bill.

 

Paterson suggested that Side Well was "turning into a new gold camp in a historic field", with similarities on the underexplored eastern limb of the Polelle Syncline.

 

The western limb hosts the 1.5 million ounce Paddy's Flat gold camp, but the eastern limb geology was previously considered barren by explorers, and was obscured by 10-15m of cover.

 

It is also a new style of mineralisation for the Meekatharra gold field, felsic to intermediate volcanics and volcaniclastics, compared with the banded iron formations and mafic/ultramafic sequences that have produced over 4Moz to date.

 

It has started getting approval and access agreements for aircore drilling. 

 

Great Boulder is continuing to drill both RC and aircore holes at Mulga Bill and Ironbark.

 

Earlier this month it reported the highest-grade intersection and the highest individual gold assay at Side Well: 15m at 35.82gpt from 88m, including 5m at 83.6gpt in the Mulga Bill HGV.

 

Great Boulder had A$6 million cash at the end of June.

 

Shares in the explorer, which have traded at 6.5-23c over the past year, were up 10% in early trade to 10c, capitalising it at $42 million.