Aureka drone blitz unlocks prime targets in Stawell Corridor

Aureka Limited has hit the ground running at its flagship, 100 per cent owned Irvine gold project in Victoria, locking onto fresh, high-priority targets after sending survey drones skyward.

The precision airborne geophysical program has unmasked a network of previously hidden subsurface structures across the project area in the decorated Stawell gold corridor, pinning down clear underground geological features, unlocking its highly prospective new hunting grounds.

The new drone dataset utilised tight fifty-metre line spacings flown at low altitude, delivering a massive resolution upgrade over the low tech historical regional data.

The company’s high-tech leap has lit up complex underlying fault zones and structural traps that may host gold mineralisation beneath alluvial soil cover.

Geologically, gold at Irvine is tied to a collection of sheared volcanic basalt and sedimentary rock layers offset along the eastern edge of the major Irvine Dome structure.

Aureka says that to map this zone with pinpoint accuracy, the raw magnetic data underwent advanced processing to strip out natural background noise, centering the newly identified anomalies directly over their exact underground targets.

The company is moving at pace, testing the first of the newly defined anomalies, with a diamond drill rig already biting into the fresh North Resolution target at Irvine.

Located 900 metres north of Aureka’s established Resolution lode resource, the blind target popped into view through a combination of locating a distinct magnetic low along with soil geochem anomalies and a strong electrical signature that all point to potential sulphide mineralisation.

The survey also shone a light on the structural complexity within the underexplored, 2000- metre gap between the 264,000-ounce Resolution lode and the 40,000-ounce Adventure lode. Initial drilling across the prospective zone is already complete, with the highly anticipated assay results set to land soon.

Aureka Limited managing director James Gurry said: “It is great to see these enhanced magnetics immediately put to use in our continuous diamond drilling at Irvine, and we look forward to what world-renowned expert Dr Barry Murphy can also reveal from our enhanced Irvine dataset.”

Drill results are also in the pipeline for Aureka’s untested prospects across the project’s western flanks near the historic New Eaglehawk and Native Youth mine workings.

Management says to help it extract maximum value from the new dataset, the company has hired globally renowned structural geologist Dr Barry Murphy. Murphy comes to A