Golden Horse Minerals (ASX: GHM) has delivered wide and high-grade intersections with drilling at the Hopes Hill gold project in Western Australia.

The newly-listed company commenced a reverse circulation campaign this year at the project — which it acquired in December from Emerald Resources (ASX: EMR) — to target shallow high-grade mineralisation at the central zone, immediately below the historic open pit.

Results included an “exceptional” 43 metres at 4.5 grams per tonne gold within a broader zone of 83m at 2.5g/t.

Boundary constraints

There had been minimal exploration conducted at Hopes Hill since mining ceased in the mid-1990s, as the original pit depth was limited by tenement boundary constraints that severely restricted drill pad locations for access to areas immediately below the pit floor.

The constraints have since been removed and Golden Horse is now aiming to confirm historical drill data and determine continuity of the mineralisation along strike.

The latest assays featured best results of 14m at 8.2g/t gold from 132m, 8m at 4.9g/t gold from 107m and 7m at 4.0g/t gold from 120m.

Increasing grades at depth

Golden Horse managing director Nicholas Anderson said the results highlighted the potential for increasing grades and widths at depth and confirmed the central zone’s potential.

“These assays reinforce our expectation that a substantial body of mineralisation lies beneath the existing shallow pit at Hopes Hill and validate our strategy of progressively testing the mineralisation at depth,” he said.

“We believe the central zone represents a significant high-grade target with considerable width along the entire 1.3 kilometres of strike.”

He said the company was “extremely well-positioned” to remain a front runner among its peers, backed by a strong team, substantial cash at bank and solid shareholder support.

Tenement package

The Hopes Hill project is part of an extensive tenement package spread over 360 square kilometres of the Southern Cross greenstone belt in the south-eastern part of WA.

It includes the historic Hopes Hill open pit mine, estimated to be approximately 1,300m long with a maximum depth of around 90m.

Golden Horse commenced drilling adjacent to the open pit in late January as part of a 22-hole program—five within the central zone and a further two in the southern zone of the mineralisation.