Zenith Minerals has received a firm commitment from Perth-based investment company Ida Metals for about $7.65 million via share placement.

The backing will help Zenith fast-track further drilling at its Red Mountain gold project in Queensland and pursue additional resource growth at the Consolidated Dulcie gold project in Western Australia.

Zenith Minerals managing director Andrew Smith said the strategic placement represented a significant milestone for the company as it advanced its ‘Going for Gold’ strategy at Red Mountain and Dulcie.

“It renders the company exceptionally well-funded to continue resource growth at Dulcie beyond the current ~300koz mineral resource and to really ‘get after’ Red Mountain, which has huge optionality for Zenith shareholders,” he said.

Ida Metal, which specialises in investments across Australia’s gold sector, will emerge as a 10.18 per cent shareholder of Zenith.

Discovered by Zenith in 2017, the Red Mountain gold project is located west of Bundaberg within Queensland’s Auburn Arc.

Zenith recently completed a deep diamond drilling program, partially funded by a $275,000 State Government grant, with some assays still pending.

The first hole of the drilling program intersected a broad gold zone of 139.7m at 1.05g/t gold from 214.9m, including high-grade intervals such as:

• 14.2m at 4.62 g/t gold from 276m, including 2.0m at 21.03 g/t gold;
• 9.45m at 5.29 g/t gold from 339.55m, including 2.1m at 21.15 g/t gold (with highest individual hit of 0.8m at 37.10g/t gold).

Zenith has applied for additional ground to the south of Red Mountain tenement EPM26384 to increase its total land package at the site to about 95sq km.

Additionally, the company plans to undertake a regional soil sampling campaign across the Red Mountain tenure to identify supplementary exploration targets.

Zenith said historical work in the area had not systematically tested for IRG-style mineralisation, providing it with the opportunity to advance Red Mountain into a significant, district-scale project in the same manner as the Mount Wright-Ravenswood complex.