Selected core from the drilling at the deposit within its Gabanintha project about 40km south of Meekatharra will also be used for communition and metallurgical test work.
The three-hole program totalling 165m is a key step in Bryah Resources’ (ASX:BYH) plan to advance the project towards gold production.
Tumblegum South has a current inferred resource of 600,000 tonnes grading 2.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 42,500oz of contained precious metal.
A mining lease over the deposit was granted earlier this month.
“This drilling is a clear example of our pivot towards focusing on our copper and gold assets following yesterday’s announcement of a $5 million conditional cash offer for, and intended sale of, our manganese rights in the Bryah Basin,” managing director Neil Marston said.
“Earlier this month the mining lease over the Tumblegum South deposit was granted and two weeks later we are back on the ground with a drilling team.
“We are very keen to keep moving this project forward in this very buoyant gold market and we look forward to reporting the assay and testwork results from this drilling in due course.”
The three-hole program was designed from preliminary optimisation to focus on testing a better portion of the inferred resource.
Once drilling is completed, half the core will be submitted to a laboratory for gold and multi-element analysis while portions of the remaining core will be selected and submitted for communition testwork and density measurements.
Follow-up metallurgical testwork will be determined once the core has been recovered back to Perth.
The company is planning a small, ~12 month open cut mining operation at Tumblegum South.
Bryah holds a suite of mineral rights over tenements covering 170sqkm held by Australian Vanadium (ASX:AVL).
The company holds the rights for all minerals excluding vanadium, titanium, cobalt, chromium, uranium, lithium, tantalum, iron ore and manganese.
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