Azure Minerals begins exploration at Barton Gold Project as tenement granted

Azure Minerals Ltd (ASX:AZS) (OTCMKTS:AZRMF) has started initial exploration at its wholly-owned Barton Gold Project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields following the granting of an exploration licence. The Barton project is in the Kookynie Gold District, close to several large and growing gold deposits and adjoins Genesis Minerals Ltd’s (ASX:GMD) new Puzzle North gold discovery. It is mostly soil-covered and has undergone little historical exploration, with a best drill intersection of 7 metres at 1.26 g/t gold within 18 metres at 0.77 g/t along trend from Puzzle North. Azure exploration team mobilised Azure managing director Tony Rovira said the company’s exploration of the project would now take the next step, with a detailed airborne magnetic survey already underway while on-ground exploration, including drilling, would be underway as soon as practicable. “Barton contains several very exciting gold targets and we have already commenced our maiden exploration program, with a detailed aeromagnetic survey underway to be followed by aircore and reverse circulation drilling,” he said. “The Barton tenement provides us with sole ownership of a large and highly prospective foothold in the Kookynie Gold District, which has recently seen substantial increases in gold resources and new discoveries being made close to our property. “Given recent exploration successes by other companies in the Kookynie district, Azure is confident that comprehensive and targeted exploration on the largely unexplored 200 square kilometre landholding has good potential for the discovery of significant gold mineralisation.” Azure has entered into a Heritage Protection Agreement with local Traditional Owners to allow on-ground exploration activities. Barton Gold Project potential The Barton Gold Project lies adjacent to the historical gold mining town of Kookynie, about 40 kilometres south of Leonora in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. Azure’s exploration licence contains 67 graticular blocks covering around 200 square kilometres of the Kookynie Gold District and adjoins several growing gold deposits, including Genesis Minerals’ Ulysses Gold Project, Saturn Metals Ltd’s (ASX:STN) Apollo Hill Gold Project and recent high-grade gold discoveries at Kookynie by Metalicity Ltd (ASX:MCT). Since the 1890s, the Kookynie-Orient Well-Ulysses district has produced more than 1.1 million ounces of gold from open pit and underground mining of high-grade, quartz vein gold deposits and currently hosts additional gold resources in excess of 3 million ounces. The majority of historical exploration in this district focused on areas of outcrop and shallow soil covered terrain, however, due to extensive soil cover within the Barton project area, all soil sampling and shallow drilling previously undertaken was ineffective in testing for bedrock-hosted gold mineralisation. Recent drilling by Genesis at their newly discovered Puzzle North prospect has identified wide zones of shallow gold mineralisation over a strike length in excess of 400 metres. Mineralisation is associated with quartz veining hosted in hematite-sericite altered granite adjacent to a north-striking granite-greenstone contact. The nearest mineralised drill holes are about 300 metres south of the Barton tenement boundary and the mineralised zone remains open and trends directly towards Azure’s property. Next steps Initially, Azure’s drilling will follow-up gold mineralisation intersected historically at the Daisy Corner prospect, which may represent the northern extensions of the recent Puzzle North discovery where Genesis Minerals is undertaking a resource definition drilling program. The company will also test for structurally controlled bedrock-hosted gold associated with cross-cutting shears and fault zones elsewhere on the property. - Daniel Paproth