Askari Metals has pumped up its gold resource by 28 per cent to 82,700 ounces grading 1.2 grams per tonne (g/t) at its Burracoppin project in Western Australia.
In the process it won over market punters, who pushed up the company’s share price earlier today by more than 100 per cent from yesterday’s 1 cent close to a peak of 2.1c this morning.
Due to a booming gold price, the company says it has fielded significant enquiries for the project and is engaged in discussions that may provide additional value for shareholders.
The project, 20 kilometres east of Merredin, now contains an upgraded resource of 2.14 million tonnes at a gold grade of 1.2g/t for 82,700 ounces, using a cut-off grade of 0.55g/t.
Management says the resource encompasses the mineralised zones across its Benbur-Christmas Gift, Easter Gift and Lone Tree prospects. The Benbur-Christmas Gift deposit comprises more than 93pc of the resource for 77,300 ounces.
Using a lower cut-off grade of 0.3g/t, the resource is boosted further to 3.6mt at 0.87g/t for 101,000 ounces of the in-demand precious yellow metal.
The resource upgrade is based on data from 155 reverse circulation drill holes in a recent campaign, which saw 11,496 metres drilled across the three zones.
Better results from historical drilling consist of 6m at 2.37g/t from 31m and 6m going 1.85g/t from 151m at the Benbur deposit. Easter Gift produced a thick slice of 3m grading 17.41g/t from 73m, with a stellar 1m chunk at 45.5g/t. Christmas Gift delivered a 10m section running 1.38g/t from a depth of 34m.
Askari is planning further drilling at its Benbur-Christmas Gift and Easter Gift ground, which could offer the potential to significantly bump its resource up another notch.
Burracoppin is in a region renowned for gold discoveries and sits 15km west of Ramelius Resources’ historic Edna May gold mine. Edna May produced 320,000 ounces of gold from 1911 to 1922 and has pumped out more than 570,000 ounces since production resumed in 2017.
Askari Metals non-executive director Gino D’Anna said: “The update to the mineral resource at the Burracoppin gold project has presented the company with renewed opportunities to discuss the ongoing development and growth of the project with interested parties. As Burracoppin approaches the 100,000 ounces aspirational target, we see tremendous upside in future drilling programs designed to test a number of high priority exploration targets that we identified previously.”
The project site contains laterites covering the Archean rock sequences that carry gold mineralisation apparently confined to iron-rich laterites. The overall mineralised strike has been confirmed across the three separate prospective zones for a combined strike length of 3km.
Historical workings date back to the 1930s and targeted four areas – the Christmas Gift, Benbur North, Benbur and Easter Gift prospects.
Old timers working the ground appeared to chase mineralisation hosted in narrow, steeply dipping veins and fault zones within a sequence of gabbro or granite material. The general strike is considered north to south and contains units folded into a series of open folds.
The project area comprises numerous shallow shafts dug in the day on high-grade gold veins. In 1933, the Daily News newspaper reported the first parcel of ore from Burracoppin produced gold grades of 49g/t.
A 1954 report on cancelled gold mining leases indicated more than 700 ounces of gold were produced at Benbur and Christmas Gift. Benbur pumped out 522 ounces between 1930-36 and Christmas Gift some 183 ounces between 1932-39.
With the gold price appearing to ramp higher every day, Askari has timed the release of its upgraded resource perfectly as intense demand builds for mineable gold assets in WA.
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By Craig Nolan
