Castle spins drilling rods chasing high-grade gold in Ghana

Castle Minerals has fast-tracked a 1500m, 12-hole reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign before year’s end designed to follow up a string of compelling high-grade gold intercepts. The Kpali and Kandia prospects are just two in Castle’s broader 2686-square kilometre Wa Gold Project in the emerging Upper West region in Ghana that has seen a plethora of high-grade multi-million-ounce discoveries in recent years.

ASX-listed Cardinal Resources etched out an impressive 138.6 million tonnes at 1.13 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for a contained 5.1 million ounces at its Namdini gold deposit before finding itself the target of a bidding war between Chinese and Russian investors in 2020.

Nearby, Azumah Resources laid claim to 2.8 million ounces at its Black Volta gold project, which is earmarked for development in 2025.

Kandia lies on the same Bole-Bolgatanga Birimian greenstone belt as Namdini, while Black Volta’s Julie deposit is immediately along strike of the Kandia mineralised trend.

Castle says location is a key driver for exploring the Kpali Gold Project, as it lies smack bang in the middle of two converging major greenstone belts and three regional-scale structures that are known hosts of gold mineralisation.

Castle’s exploration at Kpali has outlined hydrothermal lode-style gold mineralisation in a structural zone up to 50m wide over an 850m strike in Birimian metasediments, which is adjacent to a local granodiorite intrusion. These are all key geological signatures of several world-class gold deposits in West Africa and across Ghana.

A recent nine-hole RC drilling program completed in September at the prospect jagged 3m at 5.2 g/t gold from 125m, including 1m running at 10 g/t. Other intriguing intercepts were 4m giving up 3.66 g/t gold from 26m and 11m averaging 1.86 g/t from 143m.

With more than a few whiffs of smoke, management believes the results indicate the possibility of a new mining camp.

At Kandia, the company is looking to outline a large, shallow depth, bulk tonnage gold resource in the prospective Birimian sedimentary sequence associated with a 25km prospective sheared contact with an adjacent regional-scale granodiorite intrusion.

Following extensive wide-spaced reconnaissance geochemical sampling and follow up drilling between 2010 and 2014 of two compelling targets – the ‘4000’ and ‘8000’ zones - Castle defined a combined maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource of 92,659 ounces at Kandia.

Drilling is underway at site and is designed to confirm continuity and controls of mineralisation in 4000 zone and identify prospective zones of higher-grade gold mineralisation.

These are just two of several high conviction prosects within Castle’s regional-scale Wa gold project where the immediate aim is to build a cluster of mineral resources totalling an initial one million ounces.

Gold might have lost a tiny bit of sparkle in recent days dropping from US$2720 (A$4,369) an ounce late last week to US$2622.44 (AU$4212) an ounce yesterday after the United States Federal Reserve lowered interest rates. However, a quick glance back over the year shows gold has been a stellar performer - rising more than 20 per cent from US$2043 (A$3282) an ounce at the start of 2024.

Analysts from leading global investment bank Goldman Sachs predict the precious yellow metal will tip the US$3000 (A$4819) mark in 2025, underpinned by easing central bank policies, sustained buying by central banks and rising global political instability.

Timing – as they say – is everything.

With drilling scheduled to wrap up early in the new year and results soon to follow, Castle could well be on the cusp of its own multi-million-ounce discovery in a fertile patch of West African real estate as the gold price looks to regain some of its glimmer.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au