Arika Resources Hits 12.34g/t Gold in Overlooked Lode Beside Historic Mine
Key Takeaways
- Arika's hole 26AKRC007 returned 5m at 12.34g/t gold from 162m, including 1m at 49.92g/t, revealing a previously unrecognised hangingwall lode about 200m down-plunge of the main historical workings at Cosmopolitan.
- The lode is almost devoid of quartz, which explains why old miners following quartz leaders missed it, and its strike and dip remain untested.
- Cosmopolitan produced 331,000oz at 15g/t between 1895 and 1922, and nearby Altona produced about 89,000oz at 30g/t, putting the discovery beside historically high-grade ground.
- First-pass drilling also hit 4m at 8.24g/t at Altona South, 4m at 6.34g/t at Welshman and 1m at 11.77g/t at Irishman, though many holes returned no significant intercepts.
- About 8,000 samples are still at the lab and a diamond rig mobilises in late November, but no Mineral Resource Estimate has been stated for the new lode.
New high-grade gold lode discovered at Cosmopolitan
Arika Resources (ASX: ARI) announced on 19 October 2026 that drilling at the historical Cosmopolitan Gold Mine, part of its 100%-owned Kookynie Gold Project in Western Australia, has delivered a previously unrecognised high-grade gold lode. The lode sits ~200m down-plunge of the main area of historical mining.
The headline result is 5m @ 12.34g/t Au from 162m (26AKRC007), including 1m @ 49.92g/t Au. Grams per tonne (g/t) measures how much gold is in each tonne of rock, so a grade above 10g/t is considered high.
A second hole, 26AKRC004, returned 9m @ 1.59g/t Au from 188m. Both holes were drilled on-section some 60m apart, using Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling.
The lode is a hangingwall structure roughly 10-20m above the historically developed Cosmopolitan Main Reef. For you as an investor, the company says this opens a large, high-priority target within an under-explored part of the Diamantina-Cosmopolitan-Cumberland system. It presents an opportunity to add ounces to the “growing gold inventory” and supports Arika’s strategy to advance towards a maiden Mineral Resource Estimate in the near term.
| Hole | From (m) | Interval | Grade (Au) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26AKRC007 | 162 | 5m | 12.34g/t | New Hangingwall Lode |
| 26AKRC007 | 162 | 1m | 49.92g/t | Included in 5m interval |
| 26AKRC007 | 166 | 1m | 7.76g/t | Included in 5m interval |
| 26AKRC004 | 188 | 9m | 1.59g/t | New Hangingwall Lode |
| 26AKRC004 | 193 | 3m | 4.48g/t | Included in 9m interval |
Justin Barton, Managing Director
“…we appear to have identified a previously unrecognised high-grade gold lode sitting above the historically mined Main Reef position in an area where no stoping took place, approximately 200 metres beyond (down-plunge of) the main area of historical underground mining.”
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Why the old miners missed it
The gold-bearing shear zone is almost devoid of quartz. The announcement says this might explain why the old miners missed it, as they relied on following quartz “leaders” to guide underground development.
Most historical drill holes in the area were also selectively sampled, based only on the identification of quartz veining. As a result, the strike and dip positions of this feature remain untested.
The historical Cosmopolitan Gold Mine produced 331,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 15g/t Au between its discovery in 1895 and 1922. Mining was restricted to the upper levels because of high volumes of groundwater and the limits of pumping technology at the time.
Depth potential has been flagged before. A historical hole drilled by Nex Metals (NXDD003), not by Arika, returned a visible gold hit of 3m @ 9.6g/t Au including 0.5m @ 55.7g/t from 338.5m.
Barton also noted that the quartz-poor feature has been identified in Arika’s work at Yundamindra.
What is a hangingwall lode, and why does quartz absence matter?
A lode is a concentration of gold-bearing rock. A hangingwall lode sits above the main mineralised structure, which is why the new find lies 10-20m above the Main Reef.
Quartz is the white vein rock that old miners tracked underground. If gold sits in rock with very little quartz, quartz-led mining and sampling could walk straight past it, while sampling the full length of a drill hole can pick it up.
For investors, that points to overlooked ground next to a historically high-grade mine, which may reduce discovery risk. But there is no resource yet, and Arika has not stated a Mineral Resource Estimate for the lode.
Additional high-grade hits across the Cosmopolitan-Altona corridor
First-pass drilling also returned encouraging assays from other targets in the broader corridor:
- Irishman: 1m @ 11.77g/t Au from 63m (26AKRC027)
- Welshman: 4m @ 6.34g/t Au from 16m (26AKRC031)
- Altona South: 4m @ 8.24g/t Au from 90m (26AKRC018)
Some caution is warranted. The Altona South result is a 4m composite sample, and anomalous results from 4 metre composite samples will be re-split and re-submitted on a 1m basis to refine the distribution of gold. No top cut was applied due to the early nature of the assessment.
The assay table also shows many holes with no significant intercepts (NSI) or that failed to reach target. These are early, first-pass results rather than a full picture of the corridor.
Altona lies 1.5km east of Cosmopolitan and produced ~89,000 oz at an average grade of 30g/t Au. The Scotchman, Irishman, Welshman and Cornishman prospects are NE-trending second-order linking structures between the two main reefs. The announcement says these structures potentially control very high-grade, steeply plunging shoots where they intersect the Cosmopolitan and Altona lodes.
Barton said the results reinforce the company’s view that Kookynie hosts a much broader mineralised system, with multiple opportunities for further discoveries beyond the main historical deposits.
For readers wanting to understand the regional potential, our detailed coverage of new Kookynie gold targets outlines the structural prospects identified across the wider project area.
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Next steps and a busy drilling pipeline
Approximately 100 RC holes totalling 12,000m have been completed at Kookynie to date, with drilling recommenced in July 2026. Some 8,000 samples are currently being processed through the assay laboratory.
Key upcoming activities include:
- The drill rig is scheduled to move to Yundamindra next month to complete pre-collars ahead of diamond drilling at Pennyweight Point.
- A diamond rig is planned to mobilise to site towards the end of November.
- Extensional drilling is underway at Altona.
- Testing of new targets at Champion and Leipold is planned.
- Detailed structural targeting is in progress, focused on previously unexplored areas beneath cover.
The Kookynie Gold Project is located approximately 65km south of Leonora. It sits in the Laverton Greenstone Belt region, where total gold production is estimated to be in excess of 28 million ounces. Sons of Gwalia is located just ~40km north of Kookynie, while Sunrise Dam and Wallaby are located ~20-30km east of Yundamindra.
For you, the practical takeaway is a pipeline of pending assays, which points to a steady flow of drilling news. Each result will show whether the Cosmopolitan discovery is an isolated hit or part of a larger system.
Justin Barton, Managing Director
“Our focus is on systematically unlocking the potential of these historic gold systems, building our understanding of the controls on high-grade mineralisation and translating exploration success into a growing gold inventory for Arika shareholders.”
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