ASX-listed Aurum Resources is another step closer to launching exploration on its flagship Ryan’s Find gold project, north-east of Southern Cross in WA. The company says once it receives heritage clearance, which has now been scheduled it will immediately kick off an air-core drilling campaign. A gradient array induced polarisation survey is also planned for its Penny South gold project.
The heritage clearance programme will be conducted by Terrarossa, the Marlinyu Ghoorlie Native Title Claimant Group’s service provider. The Ryan’s Find programme of works has been given the tick of approval by the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety allowing Aurum to upgrade tracks and drill pads before drilling commences.
The long-awaited drill program will be the beginning of Aurum’s gold exploration along the Watt Hills greenstone belt, which is also host to the historical Mt Dimer gold mine. Gold mineralisation at Mount Dimer is orogenic in nature and occurs primarily as Archean quartz lode structures with associated lateritic and supergene mineralisation.
Once heritage clearance has been granted, Aurum will visit the site to inspect the outcrop areas, position drill collars and organise access tracks for the forthcoming air-core campaign. A rig is already pencilled in, with drilling expected to commence later next month.
Air-core drilling is planned over anomalous gold sections defined by historic soil sampling, with approximately 74 holes for 3000-4000m planned. Drill holes will focus on a contiguous magnetic unit associated with elevated gold in soils.
The Ryan’s Find project is located in the historic Mt Dimer gold mining area along the Marda-Diemals greenstone belt, northeast of Southern Cross and Koolyanobbing. It was initially explored for nickel by WMC way back in the 1970s and has remained undeveloped for 20-30 years with little modern exploration. The tenements form an arc around a granitic pluton concealing greenstones of the Watt Hill greenstone belt, an extension of the Youanmi greenstone belt, with associated shear structures typical in orogenic gold mineralisation.
Aurum’s tenure contains in excess of 50km of strike length of comparatively unexplored greenstone belt bookended by historic gold mines and workings.
Historical mining in the region includes the famous Mt Dimer operation where more than 8000 ounces of gold grading a healthy 3.44 grams per tonne were produced in the 1990s. A JORC compliant resource 722,000 tonnes at 2.10 g/t gold for 48,545 ounces of gold and 3.84 g/t silver for 89,011 ounces has since been defined at Mt Dimer by its current owner, Everest Metals.
Aurum’s exploration lease surrounds the Mt Dimer mining lease and runs to the southeast along the structural trend of the old mine. The company says the resource remains open to the south and down dip with strong potential to extend the mineralisation along strike to the south.
On the western side of the dome, part of Aurum’s tenure lies immediately south of Aurumin’s historic deposits of Frodo, Golden Slipper and Lightning. Aurumin has returned numerous stellar gold hits at several prospects near Aurum’s ground, including 5m going at a spectacular 19.26 g/t gold, 7m at 7.55 g/t gold and 4m grading 48.69 g/t gold.
To the north of Ryan’s Find, Aurum recently confirmed that its Penny South gold project is also prospective for nickel in addition to traces of silver and zinc after a significant review of historical data in the area.
The company is also planning a gradient array IP survey over a 5.2 square kilometre block to cover the historical anomalous nickel strike in the ultramafic schist units. Previous exploration at Penny South has predominantly been focussed on gold exploration with a geological model similar to Ramelius’s nearby Penny West deposit, characterised by low tonnage and high-grade style gold mineralisation. However, other mineralisation styles are present in the Southern Cross area, so Aurum is keen to pursue possible nickel mineralisation at Penny South.
Considering the nearby deposits close to both Ryan’s Find and Penny South, Aurum will be keen to get stuck into this next drilling phase to see what can be unearthed at its prospective projects.
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By Matt Birney
