Augustus Minerals has bagged its highest gold grade to date at its Music Well project near Leonora in Western Australia, with its June reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign intersecting a one-metre section grading 19.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
The impressive high-grade hit was contained within a broader 8-metre zone that returned 3.27g/t gold from a depth of 72m at the Clifton East prospect. The results have given the company a new geological model to chase with a follow-up drill program planned to kick off in just two to three weeks.
The 1242 square kilometre Music Well project sits just 35 kilometres north of Leonora in WA’s revered Leonora-Laverton greenstone belt, a region with a known gold endowment of more than 28 million ounces. It’s serious elephant country with Augustus’ ground surrounded by major operations including Northern Star’s 4.3-million-ounce Darlot and Thunderbox gold mines and Genesis Minerals’ King of the Hills mine and Leonora Gold Camp.
Other notable results from the company’s latest RC campaign include a further 12m intercept at 0.94g/t gold from 39m, which held a richer 5m core going 1.38g/t gold. Another hole returned 3m at 1.06g/t gold from 36m.
The drilling has now defined gold mineralisation over a 400m strike length within a much larger 1.2km-long gold-in-soil anomaly, suggesting there is plenty of room for the system to grow.
The real story from this latest campaign, however, is the geological insight provided. Augustus says structural measurements taken from a recently completed diamond hole suggest the highest grades are associated with steeply dipping, pyritic quartz veins. These veins appear to be oriented obliquely to the broader, shallower alteration zones the company had previously been targeting.
The geology at Clifton East is already showing strong similarities to the Golden Cities group of deposits which sit 50 km north of Kalgoorlie - one of the largest granite-hosted Archean gold systems in Australia with a 1.4-million-ounce endowment. The discovery of discrete, high-grade shoots within the broader system could be a game-changer for the project’s economics. With this new understanding, Augustus is set to re-orient its drill rigs to specifically test for these oblique high-grade veins.
Augustus Minerals general manager exploration Andrew Ford said: “The June drilling confirmed that a significant alteration and gold mineralised system is present at Clifton East. The 19.5g/t single metre assay from 72m in MWRC0019 also illustrates the potential of the prospect to host higher grade veins. The dip and frequency of these veins within the broader mineralised zones will be tested with some new holes oriented to the northwest in the next few weeks."
The company is well-funded to press ahead with its exploration plans, having recently topped up its coffers with a $2.5 million capital raise. In a significant vote of confidence, global gold major Gold Fields Limited participated in the raising through its subsidiary, G Ex Australia, to take up a 5 per cent stake in Augustus. Assays from the recently completed diamond core hole are expected back within five to six weeks and will provide further crucial structural data.
Elsewhere, Augustus is seeking a strategic foothold in Papua New Guinea, a significant global producer of both gold and copper, lodging several applications at Mt Kare and Vanapa River both highly prospective regions within the island country. Additionally, within WA it holds the 840 square kilometre Ti Tree project in the Gascoyne region prospective for gold, gold copper, lithium and rare earths.
With the rods set to start spinning again in just a couple of weeks to hunt down more high-grade shoots, plenty of news flow is expected from Music Well. The company's upcoming program will also see some holes drilled into the highly prospective St Patrick's Well prospect, where previous rock chip sampling returned a stunning 30.4g/t gold.
It seems Augustus is just starting to get a feel for the rocks at Music Well. With a stand out grade now in the bag and a new geological theory to test in a well-endowed gold province, punters will be keenly watching to see if the company can deliver an encore performance.
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