Augustus Minerals Maps Two Open Gold Shoots at Clifton East With Third in Sight
Key Takeaways
- Structural analysis and soil sampling have defined two higher-grade gold shoots at Clifton East — the western shoot over more than 400m of strike and the eastern shoot over 300m — both interpreted as open to the north-northeast.
- The standout RC intercept of 8m at 3.27g/t Au, including 1m at 19.5g/t Au from hole MWRC0019, anchors the western shoot alongside two additional holes returning 11m at 2.41g/t and 12m at 0.94g/t.
- Diamond hole MWD0001's lower grades are attributed to the hole running sub-parallel to steeply dipping veins rather than cutting across them — alteration zonation and 97.4% core recovery support the interpretation that the high-grade core remains untested at depth.
- Assay results from three NW-oriented RC holes (MWRC0025, MWRC0026, MWRC0027), drilled to correctly cross-cut the shoot corridor, are expected mid-to-late October 2026.
- A third untested zone — Potential Shoot 3 — has been identified via 1.8g/t Au rock chips over approximately 200m of strike east of Clifton East, with no drilling completed to date.
Two gold shoots emerge at Clifton East
Augustus Minerals has announced that structural analysis, RC drilling assays, and multi-element soil sampling have defined at least two higher-grade gold shoots at the Clifton East prospect within its Music Well Gold Project. Both shoots are interpreted as open to the north-northeast, sitting within one of Australia’s most gold-endowed districts.
The project covers 1,242km² located 35km north of Leonora in the Leonora-Laverton Greenstone Belt of Western Australia, a region with a gold endowment exceeding 28 million ounces. The tenement package abuts active operations run by Northern Star Resources and Genesis Minerals. The western shoot has been defined by soil sampling over more than 400m of strike, while the eastern shoot is defined over 300m of strike. These are interpreted exploration corridors at this stage, not confirmed mineral resources.
The Music Well gold strike extended to one kilometre along strike in earlier drilling, establishing the spatial scale of the system that now hosts the two Clifton East shoots and the emerging Potential Shoot 3 corridor to the east.
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What the drilling data is telling us
RC drill hole highlights (Clifton East)
The two shoot interpretations are anchored by prior RC drilling results across Clifton East. All intervals reported are downhole widths; true widths are currently unknown.
Key intersections include:
- 11m at 2.41g/t Au from 32m (MWRC0006)
- 34m at 0.83g/t Au from 38m (MWRC0010)
- 8m at 3.27g/t Au from 72m, including 1m at 19.5g/t Au (MWRC0019)
- 12m at 0.94g/t Au from 39m (MWRC0015)
| Hole ID | From (m) | Width (m) | Au (g/t) | Shoot Association |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MWRC0006 | 32 | 11 | 2.41 | Western Shoot |
| MWRC0015 | 39 | 12 | 0.94 | Western Shoot |
| MWRC0019 | 72 | 8 | 3.27 (incl. 1m at 19.5g/t) | Western Shoot |
| MWRC0010 | 38 | 34 | 0.83 | Eastern Shoot |
All intervals are downhole widths. True widths are not yet known.
Diamond core MWD0001: mapping the system at depth
Diamond drill hole MWD0001 returned lower gold grades than the RC holes above, but the result carries an important geological message. The hole penetrated the more distal, or peripheral, parts of the mineralised system rather than its higher-grade core, a structural geometry outcome rather than a negative exploration result.
The key reason is orientation. Structural measurements from the diamond core indicate that higher-grade quartz-pyrite veins frequently dip steeply to the southeast, sub-parallel to the direction MWD0001 was drilled. Because the hole ran roughly in the same direction as the veins rather than cutting across them, it intercepted their edges rather than their hearts.
MWD0001 returned the following intersections (downhole widths, true widths unknown):
- 6m at 0.31g/t Au from 79m
- 5m at 0.43g/t Au from 106m
- 12m at 0.22g/t Au from 117m
Despite the lower grades, the hole revealed a clear alteration zonation progressing from distal hematite through hematite-albite-carbonate-chlorite to more proximal silica-sericite-pyrite-carbonate. This alteration pattern tells geologists the mineralised system continues down-dip, it just wasn’t intersected at its centre. Core recovery averaged a strong 97.4%, supporting confidence in the data quality.
Understanding gold shoots in granite-hosted systems
A “mineralised shoot” is a lens or corridor of higher-grade gold mineralisation within a broader, lower-grade system. Think of it as the richest vein of butter through a loaf of bread — the whole loaf contains gold, but the shoots are where the grade concentrates and where economic mining potential lives.
At Clifton East, the system is hosted in granite, and shoot geometry is controlled by the orientation of quartz-pyrite-carbonate veins and associated structural corridors. Defining the direction a shoot plunges (the NNE trend identified here) tells the exploration team exactly where to aim the next drill holes to intercept higher grades.
Pathfinder elements are chemical tracers that travel further from a gold deposit than gold itself, making them detectable in surface soils before a drill bit ever turns. At Clifton East, tellurium (Te), bismuth (Bi), molybdenum (Mo), and tungsten (W) in soil samples are being used alongside gold-in-soil anomalies to map the shoot corridors without the cost and time of drilling every metre of ground.
Andrew Ford, GM Exploration, Augustus Minerals
“Integration of surface geochemistry, RC and Diamond drilling data has outlined two higher grade shoots within the broader alteration system that are open to the north-northeast. Interpretation of the shoots along a NNE strike links higher grade intersections from MWRC0006, MWRC0015 and MWRC0019. Pathfinder geochemistry indicates a similar strike for the strong intersection in MWRC0010 within the eastern shoot.”
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What’s next: pending assays and drilling restart
Several near-term catalysts are expected to sharpen the picture at Clifton East over the coming weeks:
- Assay results from MWRC0025, MWRC0026, and MWRC0027 are expected mid-to-late October 2026. These holes were drilled oriented to the northwest to test for zones of higher-density quartz-pyrite veining between the original drill holes, within the interpreted shoot corridor.
- RC drilling will recommence once ground conditions improve following heavy rain on 27-28 September. Operations had restarted on 26 September before the wet weather caused a further delay, a routine operational consideration in WA’s exploration environment.
- An additional zone of approximately 200m length has been identified via rock chips returning to 1.8g/t Au, coincident with the Footwall Fault zone to the east of the Clifton East prospect. This area is described as “Potential Shoot 3” and has not yet been drilled.
- Additional RC and potential diamond drilling is planned at the St Patrick’s Well prospect.
The Footwall Fault itself, a 5-15m wide silica-sericite breccia zone trending east-northeast and dipping at approximately 40 degrees, has returned only trace mineralisation in drilling to date and appears to displace the main gold shoots rather than host them. Both confirmed shoots appear to terminate at this fault in the south, making the northward extensions the priority target for upcoming drilling.
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