Dart Mining chairman James Chirnside said: “Confirmation of the geological structural aspects and feedback is reassuring, and the presence of strong alteration, zones of quartz stockwork and significant sized veins is cause for optimism. We are looking forward to releasing more detailed results once assays are received and a considered and contextual interpretation has been made.”

The Rushworth goldfield is focused along a series of regional east-west-orientated folds hosting shallow historic gold workings, with a cumulative strike length of some 14km. Dart says the area around Growlers boasts two sets of intersecting gold reefs – one group running east-to-west and the other running north-to-south – which it believes may provide the potential deposition of the gold-bearing mineralised fluids.

Growlers Hill is a significant north-to-south structure dipping steeply west and to the east of the West Growlers prospect that sits to the south of the Rushworth township. The company considers the Growlers Hill prospect to be a prime target, with significant gold production from a northerly-striking quartz vein mined to more than 100m depth, in addition to the adjacent east-west-striking West Growlers reef that is mined to a similar depth.

Back in 1866, The McIvor Times and Rodney Advertiser newspaper in the Victorian town of Heathcote reported grades from the shafts of up to a stunning 8 ounces per tonne – equivalent to about 227g/t gold.

The company intends to move its diamond-rig to several of its other highly-promising projects soon after it has drilled the Growlers targets. A move to the Star of the West mine is likely to be next, with management saying one target to follow up is the New Holland Mining deposit.

New Holland intersected 3m at 16.2g/t gold from 3m downhole in rotary air-blast (RAB) drilling in 1993 and 2m at 80.7g/t gold within 12m going 13.96g/t from 4m downhole from reverse-circulation (RC) drilling in 1999. The intersections are shallow and have not been subject to further investigation.

Dart is also planning to drill in the third quarter, with about 800m at the historic Crown Cross mining area and 1500m at the Buckland goldfield project, in addition to 1500m at the Dart Goldfield.

Management says the Crown Cross prospect produced 18,700 ounces of gold at 108g/t from 1881 to 1889. It says several long shoots were mined within a 400m strike length about 3km east of the Growlers prospects. The 800m of drilling will comprise four to six drill holes.

The company believes Buckland has the potential for scale due to a 17.5km strike length identified from 7500 surface samples and multiple parallel structures have been defined.

RAB drilling at the Fairley’s prospect within Buckland succeeded in unveiling solid hits such as 13m at 4.82g/t gold from 12m including 2m going 11.6g/t from 20m, along with 11m at 2.64g/t gold from 28m featuring 3m going 7.49g/t from 29m.

Dart will be looking for success with the drill bit at Growlers to give it the impetus to then power through its exploration programs at its many other promising projects.

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