Platina Resources has announced it will undertake further drilling in early 2024 at its Xanadu and Beete gold projects in Western Australia on the back of the rising gold price.
Platina Managing Director, Corey Nolan, said Platina would take advantage of its strong balance sheet to optimise its gold project portfolio amid an unprecedented gold pricing environment, with the gold price reaching a record high of USD$2,070 in December 2023.
“Platina’s cash position is more than $9 million ensuring drilling programs can be delivered without dilution to shareholders,” Mr Nolan said.
Platina is actively planning and securing approvals to commence a major phase of exploration to reflect its commitment to enhancing value through strategic drilling activities.
“We’re particularly eager to commence further drilling at our Xanadu Gold Project in the Ashburton Basin to unlock the potential presence of a very large gold system at Xanadu Deeps.”
At the Xanadu West site, located along the Nanjilgardy fault system that also hosts the nearby Mt Olympus gold deposit, three proposed diamond drill tails up to 500m each will seek to find the source of gold within the system. This will be done by testing deeper targets identified by historical magnetics and induced polarisation geophysical surveys. Statutory and cultural heritages clearances have been finalised and drilling is planned once weather permits around the end of Q1.
Xanadu’s gold alteration footprint extends over 10km in strike length. Historic shallow drilling has identified structurally controlled, high-grade gold intersections within a much larger lower-grade envelope of gold mineralisation.
In addition, proposed reverse circulation (RC) drilling totalling approximately 2,900m over 13 holes will test the Amphitheatre West extension, Claudius, as well as geophysical targets at Cleopatra and Caesar, and strong arsenic in rock chip anomalies at Pompeii (north of Caesar).
Exploration activities at Hermes South will also be advanced by progressing with geological mapping and sampling along strike from areas drilled in late 2023. An aircore drilling program is also being planned at the Beete Project which lies 50km south of Norseman.
Beete covers 134km² within what is believed to be a possible extension of the Norseman greenstone belt, a prolific gold producing region. The area has not historically been systematically explored. Cultural heritage clearance processes are underway with a plan for drilling to commence in Q2.
“Beete’s gold, nickel and lithium potential remains hidden under a shallow blanket of cover and drilling will aim to test for bedrock anomalies using targets generated through soil sample analysis and geophysical interpretations,” Mr Nolan said.