Aurumin hits 3 ounce dirt near Southern Cross
Aurumin Limited has racked up a gold hit of nearly three ounces to the tonne at its Mt Dimer project approximately 120 kilometres northeast of Southern Cross in Western Australia. The 90.7 g/t hit was included in a broader 8m intersection grading a solid 15 grams per tonne gold from 71m downhole. The Mt Dimer historical production centre has previously produced over 125,000 ounces of gold.
RC drilling recently conducted over the Mt Dimer project area covered four deposits including the Lightning, Frodo, LO3 and T12 deposits. The company’s headline-grabbing 90.7 gram per tonne gold intersection occurred at Lightning and was accompanied by a series of other high grade gold hits.
Highlights from the Frodo deposit include a 1m section grading a stellar 50.1 g/t gold that was contained within a 2m section averaging 28.94 g/t gold from 106.
Other notable intercepts from the LO3 and T12 deposits nearby encompassed 4m going 2.58 g/t gold from 52m downhole and 7m grading 2.5 g/t gold from 51m.
The Lightning deposit consists of multiple narrow high-grade quartz bearing ore shoots hosted in granite. Drilling conducted by Aurumin in July intersected a 4m section grading 48.69 g/t gold including an internal metre going a whopping 153.5 g/t gold in amongst a series of other high-grade hits.
Aurumin’s LO3 deposit is one of three that were mined in the 1990’s in the Mt Dimer project area. The previously mined LO1 and LO2 deposits were extensively exploited with both open pits and underground workings. LO3 however only has a shallow historical open pit on it that remains open both along strike and at depth.
Frodo was also subjected to previous open pit mining and limited underground works. Like the Lightning deposit nearby, mineralisation at Frodo consists of multiple narrow high-grade quartz bearing ore shoots primarily hosted in granite.
The T12 target was initially identified using a sub audio magnetics survey in conjunction with first pass drilling. Following success from an initial five hole RC program in July that produced numbers including 8m at 2.58 g/t gold, Aurumin punched an additional 13 drill holes into the deposit.
The company also recently purchased the Sandstone project from Middle Island to add to its nearby 64,700 ounce Johnson Range gold resource grading 2.5 g/t gold.
The Sandstone project houses a sizeable resource of 22 million tonnes going 1.1 grams per tonne gold for a total 784,000 ounces with a lot of potential exploration upside according to Aurumin.
The Perth-based explorer has a range of processing infrastructure at its fingertips at the Sandstone project including a 500,000 tonne per annum processing plant that is upgradable to 750,000 tonnes a year. Additionally, Aurumin will gain access to camps, offices, an airstrip and bore fields at Sandstone.
Aurumin Managing Director, Brad Valiukas, said:
"We have received more high-grade intercepts at the historically high- grade Mt Dimer production centre.”
“We will continue to advance our Southern Cross assets (Mt Dimer and Mt Palmer) in parallel with Sandstone Project acquisition (subject to completion).”
After listing a little over a year ago, Aurumin has suddenly got plenty on its plate with high grade hits popping up all over its Mt Dimer project adding to the potential of the sizeable Sandstone deposit. Aurimin says the addition of its higher grade in ground ounces around Middle Island’s existing project at Sandstone will add to the economics of the merged project areas.
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