Drilling at Barton Gold's (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) Tolmer gold-silver prospect in South Australia has confirmed the local structural model to be analogous to the eastern portion of the historical Tarcoola goldfield that hosts the company’s Perseverance mine.
The company completed three holes for a total 595.3 metres on the eastern gold zone to evaluate local structural and stratigraphic controls and guide follow-up targeting.
They returned best intersections of 0.4m at 414 grams per tonne silver from 60.8m and 2.2m at 4.65g/t gold from 60.8m, including 0.4m at 20.2g/t gold from 60.8m; and 1.44m at 221g/t silver from 65.56m and 1.8m at 1.63g/t gold from 81.2m, including 0.6m at 2.74g/t gold from 81.2m.
The western silver zone target was enhanced by western and southern extensions of silver as well as the emergence of high-grade gold, with soil assays suggesting further extensions to the mineralisation.
Previous drilling identified broad and shallow silver-dominant mineralisation largely independent of gold and open to the west, while a ‘lower horizon’ at the interpreted boundary of oxide and fresh zones returned broad intervals with peak grades of up to 17,600g/t silver and 51.2g/t gold.
Initial Core Analysis
Preliminary analysis of new core from the eastern zone indicated a steeply-dipping section of faulting and deformation, analogous in orientation to the eastern portion of the Tarcoola goldfield that hosts the Perseverance open pit mine, approximately 5 kilometres to the east of Tolmer.
Structural logging confirmed a significant rotation of the host stratigraphy within the mineralised corridor, where vein geometries are consistent with brittle deformation in a broader north-to-northeast-trending sinistral shear zone.
The new core hosts discrete and narrow intervals of silver mineralisation up to 465g/t, accompanied by lead and zinc grading up to 2.1% and 5.6% respectively.
Barton has also received soil assays indicating potential extensions of the western silver zone and previously unrecognised gold-silver-lead targets, with lead and silver assays indicating a mineralised contour extending to the west and east of current drilling.
The company’s geology team will now further evaluate the Tolmer core to more carefully define local structural features and controls for comparison and contrast with the ‘gold zones’ in the eastern portion of the Tarcoola goldfield.
Regional Strategy Contibution
Barton managing director Alexander Scanlon said the new assays confirmed Tolmer’s prospectivity.
“The western silver zone is an exciting discovery with clear potential to become a material contributor to our regional development strategy and we are systematically building up a data set to enable smart targeting of its potential extensions,” he said.
“Drilling has given us a helpful first look at local structural controls to help guide future targeting across the Tolmer prospect.”
Data from the Tolmer diamond drilling will be integrated with outcomes from recent aircore, reverse circulation, and soil sampling to update the company’s interpretation of Tolmer’s local geological model(s), with a particular focus on further targets in the western silver zone.
Barton expects follow-up drilling to follow this review, targeting extensions of the mineralisation alongside other drilling programs it has planned for 2026.
