Historic Drilling Reveals 600m Gold-Antimony Corridor at Windy Ridge

Rediscovering Windy Ridge

Rimfire Pacific Mining has announced a compelling new gold-antimony opportunity at its 100%-owned Windy Ridge prospect, part of the broader Broken Hill Base Metal Project in western New South Wales. This discovery stems from a detailed review of historic exploration data, revealing a 600-metre-long mineralised zone rich in both gold and antimony, nestled within a 2.5-kilometre prospective gold corridor.

While the Broken Hill region is historically renowned for its vast lead, zinc, and silver deposits, Windy Ridge offers a fresh angle with its gold-antimony association, an element pairing that has been largely overlooked since the last drilling campaign four decades ago. Notably, surface rock chip samples have returned impressive gold grades up to 37 grams per tonne, underscoring the prospect’s high-grade potential near surface.

Historic Data Highlights and Gaps

Historic drilling by Seltrust Mining and CRA Exploration in the 1970s and 1980s intersected multiple zones of gold mineralisation, with assays including 36 metres at 0.93 grams per tonne gold and 0.46% antimony from 90 metres depth. However, these drill traverses were spaced widely, about 160 metres apart, too broad to detect potential internal high-grade shoots within the mineralised zone. Moreover, systematic assaying for antimony was not conducted, despite visual confirmation of antimony minerals (stibnite) in drill cores.

This gap in data leaves significant uncertainty around the true extent and grade of antimony mineralisation, a critical mineral recently prioritised by the Australian Federal Government under its $1.2 billion Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve. Rimfire’s Managing Director David Hutton emphasised the timeliness of this recognition, noting that the combined gold and antimony potential enhances Windy Ridge’s attractiveness amid rising global demand for critical minerals.

Strategic Positioning and Next Steps

Rimfire is currently evaluating a range of commercial strategies to unlock value from the Broken Hill Base Metal Project. Options include sole funding further exploration, partnering with other explorers, or outright divestment. This flexibility reflects both the promising nature of the Windy Ridge discovery and the company’s broader focus on high-value scandium assets elsewhere.

The company’s approach is cautious but optimistic, balancing the need for modern, systematic drilling and assaying to confirm historic indications with the strategic imperative to capitalise on critical minerals demand. The proximity of Windy Ridge to the world-famous Broken Hill mining centre and its geological similarities to known ore bodies add further intrigue to this emerging opportunity.

Broader Implications

Windy Ridge’s gold-antimony mineralisation could position Rimfire as a notable player in Australia’s critical minerals landscape, especially as antimony gains prominence for its uses in energy storage, flame retardants, and national security applications. The project’s 100% ownership by Rimfire, free of third-party encumbrances, provides a clean slate for advancing exploration and potential development.

However, the historic nature of the data and the absence of recent, detailed drilling mean that investors and analysts will be watching closely for upcoming assay results and exploration plans to validate the scale and economic viability of this opportunity.