Aurumin Limited has bagged high-grade gold hits in the company’s first drilling program since 2013 at its Johnson Range project, midway between Sandstone and Southern Cross in Western Australia, with a top 6-metre hit grading 16.5 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 65m.
The result includes 3m assaying 32.1g/t gold and 1m at 76.1g/t gold, putting a shine on the company’s infill and validation program at its current 64,700-ounce Gwendolyn gold resource.
Two other holes helped confirm the top hit with the second-best intercept boring through 7m at 9.3g/t gold from 16m, including 2m at 23.4g/t gold from 19m.
The third-best intercept probed 9m at 3.6g/t gold from 111m, including 2m at 13.3g/t gold from 111m.
Two further holes produced encouraging primary intercepts of 4m assaying 6.25g/t gold from 68m and 7m at 3.65g/t gold from 85m.
The recent 18-hole reverse circulation drilling program at Gwendolyn put in 1353m of drilling across three priority zones to test between the surface and about 80m vertical depth.
The program sought to improve geological confidence in the current 64,700-ounce inferred resource at 2.51g/t gold to support an imminent upgrade to indicated resource status and follow-on mining studies.
Importantly, the mineralisation defined to date at Gwendolyn is relatively shallow and features several high-grade zones starting at less than 20m, which Aurumin sees as a possible opportunity for near-term, low-cost, open-pit mining.
Aurumin Limited managing director Daniel Raihani said: These high-grade intercepts confirm the strength of the Gwendolyn deposit and support a resource upgrade, a key step in positioning this asset for near-term development. Importantly, several of the strongest results are from shallow depths, including 7m at 9.3g/t gold from just 16m downhole.”
Raihani said with gold trading above $5000 per ounce – it is trading at $5120 today - the timing is ideal to progress the asset. Aurumin’s technical team is now pressing ahead with its resource modelling and planning for the next phase of drilling.
Aurumin’s drilling program has significantly improved the company’s confidence in the existing Gwendolyn resource, leading it directly into technical studies and mine-permitting.
The Gwendolyn deposit is on a granted mining lease with a history of mining dating back to the late 1980s. That history includes a 2014 bulk sampling program by Vector Resources, which yielded 3150 ounces gold from 29,219 dry metric tonnes at an average grade of 3.35g/t and a 94.08 per cent recovery rate.
The Johnson Range project is within 200 kilometres of nearly a dozen potential processing options well-suited to a rapid exploitation campaign of the initial shallow Gwendolyn resource. Further deeper drilling may also uncover additional mineralisation at depth.
In mid-May, Aurumin inked a binding terms sheet with Newcam Minerals, allowing Newcam to earn up to a 50 per cent interest in Aurumin’s Johnson Range and Mt Dimer gold projects through staged expenditure.
The agreement also contemplates a joint venture over the gold mineral rights, with Aurumin retaining an option to be free-carried to net profit.
The transaction supports Aurumin's strategy to advance towards gold production and release value from its non-core assets without shareholder dilution.
In the immediate term, Aurumin will transition its Gwendolyn resource from exploration to development. This includes submitting and analysing 1m drill samples taken from anomalous composite intervals to generate a full set of 1m assays. The results will underpin a remodelled mineral resource from its latest drilling campaign.
The company expects to start scoping-level economic studies when the resource is upgraded to indicated status.
It can then plan and execute follow-up drilling to test down-dip extensions to expand the resource and seek unexplored strike extensions along the northeast-southwest structural corridor.
Aurumin looks to have in hand the four-horse bet every explorer/miner strives for: A shallow, high-grade gold resource with a fast-track path to open pit development and proximity to multiple processing options amid near-record gold prices.
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By Doug Bright
