Great Boulder Resources has added a second drill rig to its Side Well gold project to enable an accelerated program of resource definition and discovery at the Western Australian site.
One rig will focus on resource definition, while the second, an air-core (AC) rig, has commenced drilling a series of new gold targets recently identified by induced polarisation geophysical surveys.
Resource definition drilling is key for the project, while discovery drilling is focused on new targets to deliver a pipeline of growth beyond a one-million-ounce (oz) target. Side Well currently hosts a mineral resource of 668,000oz at 2.8 grams per tonne gold.
A third rig is planned to drill diamond holes at Mulga Bill and Eaglehawk in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Great Boulder managing director Andrew Paterson said the project is “one of the hottest gold addresses in Australia”, given it is located near Meekatharra and next door to Westgold Resources’ Paddy’s Flat project.
“We are in the process of accelerating drilling to bring forward an aggressive program of discovery and resource definition as we start to focus on the next major growth phase at Side Well,” Paterson said.
“We will have at least five deposits in the next resource: Mulga Bill, Eaglehawk, Ironbark, Saltbush and Side Well South. Looking beyond that, the new gold targets are the focus of exploration for the next discovery step-change beyond our current million-ounce exploration target.
“In addition to what is already an extremely busy field program, we’ll be drilling diamond holes under the Mulga Bill–Eaglehawk gold system later in the year, as well as a smaller program at Ironbark for geotechnical information and metallurgical samples.”
In April, Great Boulder signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Monument Mining to process ore from Side Well through Monument’s Burnakura mill, located 48km from Meekatharra.
Since first acquiring its 75 per cent interest in the Side Well project in July 2020, over 197,000m of AC, reverse circulation and diamond holes had been completed to June 30.
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