Bulgera Gold
Bulgera Gold, Western Australia
Accelerate Resources WA Gold Projects Location
Location, Access and Infrastructure
The Bulgera Project consists of two tenements (E52/3276 and E52/3316) with a combined area of 36.8 km2, both tenements were recently granted and following successful conclusion of the IPO process, Accelerate will have 100% ownership over the tenements
The project is located 200km north east of Meekatharra 10 km east of the Marymia Mining Centre and 48 km via road from the operating Plutonic gold mine, which has produced over 5 million ounces of gold since 1990 (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Bulgera Gold Project
Local Geology and Mineralisation
The Bulgera Gold Project is situated in the northeast corner of the Plutonic Well Greenstone Belt, which forms part of the Marymia Inlier. The Plutonic Well Greenstone Belt is a northeast trending belt approximately 50km long and 10km wide, consisting of mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks, fine to coarse clastic sediments, and felsic to intermediate volcanic rocks (Figure 2). These units generally dip towards the northwest at shallow to locally steep dips. Multiple suites of felsic to intermediate porphyries intrude the greenstone sequence and swarms of dolerite dykes locally cross-cut the strata.
Figure 2: Bulgera Project, Greenstone Geology
Previous Work
Previous mining on the project includes the former producing pits of Bulgera, Venus, Mercuri and Price. The total production from these four pits (over two phases of mining) was reported as 440,799 tonnes @ 1.65 g/t Au for 23,398 ounces.
Figure 3: Bulgera Gold Project Satellite Imagery Showing the Bulgera, Venus, Mercuri and Price Pits.
A number of companies have explored the Bulgera project area for gold, nickel and base metals since the 1970s. These include International Nickel (INCO), Marymia Canton P/L, Resolute Resources Ltd. (Resolute), Homestake Gold of Australia Ltd. (Homestake) and Barrick Gold of Australia Ltd. (Barrick).
Gold exploration of the Bulgera Project has been predominantly undertaken by Resolute, Homestake and Barrick. The majority of the work carried was out in conjunction with exploration programs focusing on the Plutonic and Marymia deposits.
Bulgera was discovered by Resolute Resources in early 1988 when rock chip samples across an outcropping ferruginous chert returned gold values of 3 to 7g/t. This was followed by a mapping program on a 1:5000 scale, gridding and soil sampling on a 100x50m pattern. Resolute Resources later mined part of the resource via open pit, between 1996 and 1998. This initial phase of production came from the Bulgera, Mercuri and Price pits totalling 134,338 tonnes @ 1.98 g/t Au for 8,562 ounces.
Resolute and joint venture partner Titan consolidated the Marymia area by purchasing the Marymia discovery from BMA. In late 1998 Homestake Gold of Australia Limited, the then owner of Plutonic, acquired all of Resolute Resources’ Marymia property and assets, consolidating the entire Plutonic belt. In 2001, Homestake Gold of Australia became Barrick Gold of Australia as a result of the North American merger of their parent companies. The Barrick development team reviewed the Bulgera project and, in 2003-2004, mined the virgin Venus Pit and cutback both the Bulgera and Mercuri pits, with the additional production of approximately 306,461 tonnes @ 1.50g/t Au for 14,836 ounces.
In 2010, Barrick sold the majority of their Plutonic licences, including approximately 600km2 of tenure covering the Marymia, Freshwater and Bulgera areas, to Dampier Gold Limited, a junior explorer. Barrick retained the operating underground mine and approximately 100 km2 of licences before selling this to Northern Star in 2013, who continued to mine and process ore at Plutonic until selling the project to Toronto listed Superior Gold Inc. (TSX-V:SGI) in February 2017. Dampier Gold entered into a joint venture with Vango Mining Limited (ASX:VAN) which now holds the entire Marymia tenement package. Vango is in the process of re-developing the K2 underground mine at Marymia.
Exploration Potential and Planned Work
The work planned is drilling the strike and depth extensions of the Bulgera and Mercuri pits, and regional targets along the western Bulgera trend, targeting extensions to existing well-defined mined structures, and subsequently applying the understanding from known structures to regional targets.
Figure 4: Bulgera target areas
Figure 5 A,B, C: Bulgera target areas, cross sectional detail
