Arika Resources (ASX: ARI) Finds New High-Grade Lode at Champion

Arika Resources has identified a previously unrecognised high-grade gold lode above the historic Champion mine at its wholly owned Kookynie project in Western Australia, opening an untested target around old workings that produced at high grades.

Reverse-circulation hole 26AKRC015 intersected 19 metres at 7.99 grams per tonne gold from 111 metres, including six metres at 15.87 grams per tonne from 113 metres and another six metres at 8.89 grams per tonne from 124 metres. A second hole, drilled on a section about 60 metres away, returned two metres at 2.31 grams per tonne from 63 metres.

Arika said the drilling was designed to intersect the target as close to perpendicular as possible, meaning the reported down-hole lengths are considered close to true thickness.

The result is important because the mineralisation sits outside the Champion Main Reef that supported historical mining. Arika interprets the new lode as part of a northeast-trending cross-cutting structure known as the Champion Fault, positioned about 10 to 20 metres above the old reef and approximately 50 metres south of the principal underground workings.

New target beyond the old workings

The newly identified zone remains untested along strike, up-dip, down-dip and down-plunge. Arika has also identified similar structures from aeromagnetic data along the more than three-kilometre Champion–Batavia trend, giving the company several follow-up targets rather than a single isolated intercept.

Historical drilling supports the interpretation that high-grade mineralisation may occur outside the main mined reef. Earlier results in the area included seven metres at 163.9 grams per tonne gold from 101 metres, including four metres at 285 grams per tonne, as well as 19 metres at 3.65 grams per tonne from 23 metres.

Those historical results are not new assays, but their location helped Arika design holes in a different orientation from previous drilling. The company has not yet defined a mineral resource at Champion, so further drilling will be required to establish continuity and scale.

Champion produced about 33,000 ounces at an average grade of 17 grams per tonne between its discovery in 1895 and 1917. It lies at the southern end of the Champion–Batavia trend, an area Arika says has received little modern exploration.

Assay pipeline remains substantial

Arika has completed about 100 reverse-circulation holes for 12,000 metres across Kookynie. Assays remain pending for more than 60 holes representing approximately 8,500 metres, providing further results from a program testing Cosmopolitan, Cumberland, Altona, Champion South and Batavia, as well as targets beneath cover.

The rig is scheduled to move to Yundamindra to prepare pre-collars for diamond drilling at Pennyweight Point. Arika has secured Western Australian Government co-funding of up to $211,213 for two planned 600-metre diamond holes targeting the mineralised system about 400 metres below surface.