Clara Resources has plans drawn up for a multi-stage drilling program at its Mareeba Gold Project in the Hodgkinson Basin as it tops up the coffers via a $1.65 million share placement.

Overall, its maiden drilling program at the Far North Queensland project is set to comprise up to 86 reverse circulation holes for 12,900m across five target areas, all within EPM 13944.

An initial 25 RC holes is planned for 3750m across three areas.

Previous owner WMC drilled about 200 holes along the Kingsborough Fault corridor at the project during its Hodgkinson Joint Venture in the late 1980s and Freeport drilled the southern end of the same structure in 1986.

Clara said that drilling was shallow reconnaissance work and none of it was carried through to a mineral resource estimate.

The company plans a resource drilling program to infill WMC’s drilling along the Kingsborough Fault corridor at half its spacing, targeting a maiden mineral resource.

It also plans to drill the Lady Burdett Coutts and Rebo/Caledonia North targets as well as testing beneath the historical B.B. and Victory/Nelson ,mine workings.

A initial 18 holes for 2700m are planned beneath the two old mines to depths of up to 180m.

“This is the first drilling at Mareeba since WMC walked away at the end of the 1980s,” Clara executive director Duncan Gordon said.

“We have two key aims. Firstly, we want to infill the historic drilling along the Kingsborough Fault corridor and drive additional results to deliver a JORC-compliant mineral resource.

“That historic drilling is good data and we have located every one of those collars, but it was shallow reconnaissance work at twice the spacing we need, so we are going back over it properly.

“The second aim is potentially even more exciting. We will tackle the depth extent of some particularly high-grade historical mining operations on our tenements that have never been drilled.

“Victory and B.B. both produced above 30g per tonne by hand. At B.B. the old records show the reef reappearing at the bottom level as the mine was abandoned to water.

“Together with our exceptional wall-rock gold sampling results and the polymetallic signature returned by the maiden field program, these targets highlight the exploration upside across the Clara footprint.

“The company is now moving to complete permitting and mobilise the rig.”

Clara has received firm commitments to raise $1.165 million (before costs) through a two-tranche placement of shares at $0.003 per share to sophisticated and professional investors, with directors participating on the same terms.

Proceeds will fund the maiden drilling program, the consolidation of the project tenure, completion of the expanded LiDAR survey and associated geology and field services, the settlement of legacy obligations and working capital.