The head of Crest Minerals says the junior explorer is not getting ahead of itself despite talking up the potential synergies with its cashed-up neighbours.

With Silver Lake Resources in the final stages of its $426 million takeover of Integra Mining, Adelaide-based Crest this week began a reverse circulation drilling campaign at its flagship Majestic North gold project, 50km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

The 24-hole, 3600m program is focused on an area 3km north of Integra’s Majestic deposit, where 92,910oz has already been defined in the gold rich Mount Monger region.

Crest believes something similar is waiting to be discovered on its tenements and wants to deliver shareholders an early Christmas present with initial drilling results expected later this month.

“Based on the anomalies to date, having every reason to make comparisons with our neighbours, it is not unreasonable to have high expectations of our reverse circulation program,” Crest managing director Angus Middleton said.

“There are no guarantees but we believe we should be able to deliver our shareholders a Christmas present with good results.

“We believe the market will reward that.”