Westgold Resources has uncovered “significant drill intercepts” from the South Junction zone within the Bluebird underground gold mine in the Meekatharra, Western Australia.

The latest drilling at Bluebird-South Junction has focused on testing and defining the down-plunge extents of the multiple orebodies that historically produced more than one million ounces (oz) from open pits.

Westgold is currently mining Bluebird-South Junction from underground, testing the South Junction system over about 900 metres of strike and down to a depth of about 800m below surface.

The gold miner said the historic South Junction open pit was largely driven by the Polar Star lode.

However, the current drill program has highlighted “increasing significance” of the South Junction lode, with a hit of 20.94m at 6.74 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold (Au).

Other recent drilling results include:

• 19m at 4.73g/t Au in hole 24SJDD023
• 90m at 5.20g/t Au in hole 24SJDD012
• 10m at 4.31g/t Au in hole 24SJDD015
• 27m at 3.76g/t Au in hole 24SJDD019_W1.

“The Bluebird-South Junction gold system is growing rapidly and drilling continues to identify multiple gold lodes of significant width and grade,” Westgold managing director and chief executive officer Wayne Bramwell said.

“The most recent mineral resource update lifted contained ounces by 134 per cent to 827,000oz and this latest program is continuing to infill and extend the resource.”

To date, Westgold has drilled 26 holes for about 20,000m at South Junction. The company plans to drill about 6000m more, with a mineral resource upgrade and ore reserve estimate targeted for the first quarter of the 2024–25 financial year (Q1 FY25).

“The potential value contribution from South Junction is considerable and while the current drill program still has 2-3 months to complete, these latest results are driving a rapid re-evaluation of what the next expansion step is for this mine,” Bramwell said.

“Westgold sees a much larger, long-life operation emerging at Bluebird-South Junction as the expanded mine footprint is not yet closed off. Development drilling continues at pace with first ore contribution from the South Junction lodes expected in Q2 FY25.”