In this week’s edition of Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits, we examine some of the more notable drill intersections revealed on the ASX, including Global Uranium and Enrichment’s hits of up to 5387 parts per million uranium oxide from its Maybell project in Colorado.
We also take a close look at other interesting drill hits from last week as reported by Superior Resources from its Steam Engine gold project in North Queensland and Great Boulder Resources from its Mulga Bill gold prospect in Western Australia.
So, let’s dive in.
Global Uranium and Enrichment
Maybell project – Colorado, United States
Hit: 4.6m at 2996ppm uranium oxide from 85m
Global Uranium has completed 11 holes in its ongoing maiden mud-rotary drilling program at its 100 per cent-owned Maybell uranium project in Colorado and has received assays back for nine holes.
The headline hole returned thick, high-grade mineralisation and includes 2.4m at 5387ppm uranium oxide from 85.2m, which the company says further showcases Maybell to be a high-quality emergent North American uranium project. And that would be nothing new to the Maybell area, which was previously an operating mine with historical production of 5.3 million pounds of uranium oxide.
A second best grade was won from a 1.5m intercept, which returned a grade of 2307ppm uranium oxide from 79.2m, while a third hole also threw up a handy 2.5m at 1637ppm from 73.4m.
Other encouraging hits from the latest batch of drill results include 4.8m at 946ppm uranium oxide from 77.7m and 11.9m at 565ppm from 85.3m in one hole.
Earlier drill results from the first two holes drilled at Maybell at the end of last month to test the shallow high-grade mineralisation and potential for deeper mineralisation also revealed high-grade uranium in significant widths.
The results included 17m at 1660ppm uranium oxide from 81m including 8.2m at 2529ppm from 81m and another 3.8m at 1483ppm from 92m. Other results from the second hole in that batch included uranium oxide grades of 624ppm, 1624ppm and a maximum of 3680ppm.
Both of those earlier sets of results returned high grades from shallow targets, which the company said surpass its expectations.
Importantly, assay results from deeper drilling into the Lower Browns Formation also turned up thick zones of mineralisation, with highlights including 30.3m at 150ppm per cent uranium oxide from 283.8m and 20.8m at 130ppm from 234.7m.
The Maybell project’s 468 mining claims enclose an area of 3600 hectares and cover the lion’s share of the Maybell mineralised trend, including the area of historical production and many known mineralised occurrences and prospects. The area is dotted with recorded mineral occurrences, including several zones from which more than 1000 tonnes of enriched material was produced.
The recent high-grade results support Global Uranium’s previously announced conceptual exploration target that ranges between 3.3 and 5.3 million tonnes containing between 4.3 and 13.3 million pounds of uranium oxide, with a grade ranging between 587ppm and 1137ppm.
The exploration target envelope only comprises the northernmost 2km to 3km of the two separate elongate north-west-trending “channel-like” zones that run to about 8km to 9km long and range between 650m and 1000m wide, separated by a distance of between 2km to 3km.
The zones enclose almost all of the mineralised shallow open pits and trends and include at least 10 historic mine workings, both within and beyond the conceptual exploration target area.
The exploration target modelling considered all relevant results from an extensive review of more than over 3000 mineralised historical drillholes and shows that a significant volume of mineralised material remains around the historic open pits.
Significant potential remains for further resource upgrades and expansion as drilling continues. Any major expansion potential would likely also include the thicker and deeper uranium mineralisation reposing in the Lower Browns Park Formation, which remains almost completely unmined.
None of the deeper material is included in the exploration target model, but it has already been confirmed by the company’s first two holes at Maybell, with thick intersections of mineralisation returned in both holes, including 30.3m at 130ppm uranium oxide.
Global Uranium’s drilling continues to sniff out high-grade uranium beyond the lateral limits of the historic open-pit mines and it plans to model a JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate in the coming months after compiling all of the latest data together with the historical drill results.
The company expects the current program to wind-up by the end of the month.
Superior Resources
Steam Engine project – Queensland
Hit: 12m at 3.29 grams per tonne gold from 71m
Superior has identified a potentially new lode zone about 80m to the west of and parallel to its Eastern Ridge lode in six of its latest 16 holes drilled, which were designed as step-out/step-back holes to further define the lode and extend its mineral resource envelope down-dip.
Resource definition drilling at Eastern Ridge also highlights a potential second high-grade mineralisation shoot that shows significant thickening with depth and impressive grades. The intercepts include the headline hole, which highlights 12m going 3.29g/t gold from 71m including 5m at 7.65g/t from 73m and 2m at 17.09g/t from 74m.
The company views the high-grade gold shoot as significant as it not only extends mineralisation from 30m to 80m down-dip from surface, but it sits at the extreme northern margin of the current mineral resource. With the shoot exhibiting a northerly plunge, significant potential is indicated for northward extension of the lode.
Superior is now planning a more extensive phase-two drilling program, which will focus on expanding its resources that are most amenable to open-pit mining and also on identifying new lode zones at the parallel Steam Engine and Eastern Ridge lodes – which are separated by about 620m.
The work is proposed to include sub-audio magnetics (SAM) geophysics and soil geochemistry. Sub-audio magnetics is a rapid-acquisition geophysical method that provides high spatial definition and/or deep penetration data related to both the electrical and magnetic properties of the earth.
Superior’s 100 per cent-owned Steam Engine project is a unique and expanding gold deposit that sits about 210km west of Townsville in Queensland. It lies between several potential tier-one porphyry copper-gold-molybdenum prospects and a magmatic nickel-copper platinum group elements (PGE) sulphide province within its Greenvale project in north-east Queensland.
Following drilling in 2020 and 2021, the company expanded its maiden mineral resource estimate from 1 million tonnes at 2.5g/t gold for 85,000 ounces, lifting the numbers to 4.18 million tonnes at 1.5g/t gold for 196,000 ounces.
The company says the project offers substantial growth potential due mainly to the generally shallow depth of the mineral resource along a mere 1.2km-long section of at least a massive 10km of potentially-mineralised structure inferred from soil geochemistry.
As has already been recognised in the Steam Engine lode, the Eastern Ridge holes show that higher-grade portions plunge flatly towards the north. But at Eastern Ridge, the higher-grade zones are more distinct than at the nearby Steam Engine lode and appear to be repeated regularly along strike.
Superior is planning a follow-up drill program to focus on extending the mineral resource along strike and down-dip, while also testing the extent of the high-grade shoot and the potential of the new lode just west of Eastern Ridge.
Work will also include drilling of the SAM targets.
Great Boulder Resources
Side Well project – north-east of Meekatharra, WA
Hit: 5m at 43.13/t gold from 185m including 2m at 102.80g/t gold from 186m
Great Boulder has reported a handful of stunning gold grades from recent drilling at its flagship Side Well project, centred about 8.5km north-east of Western Australian town of Meekatharra, which hosts a mineral resource estimate of 668,000 ounces of gold at 2.8g/t.
Nine reverse-circulation (RC) holes were drilled at Mulga Bill for a total of 1587m in a program designed to test less well-defined areas around the edges of the project’s high-grade vein positions. It is part of the company’s plan to upgrade parts of the resource from inferred to indicated category.
The program produced intersections that are both thicker and higher-grade than previously thought likely. In addition to the headline intercept, a further four top-hitting holes include 5m at 40.61g/t gold from 256m including 1m at 194.5g/t from 258m and another hole intercepting 6m going 20.52g/t from 179m including 2m at 57.1g/t gold from 179m.
A third hole jagged 5m running 16.93g/t gold from 91m including 2m at 39.7g/t from 92m and a fourth hole nailed 10m going 7.92g/t from 82m with 4m at 18.83g/t from 85m.
All of the big hits occur within the vein or vein system known as the Cervelo Lode. The second big hit (5m at 40.61g/t gold from 256m) constitutes a deeper result than all other intercepts on the same section and sits well outside the resource, down-dip and further north from previous drilling in that area.
Management says that after several rounds of drilling at Mulga Bill it is finding that drilled high-grade lode positions fit its modelling and interpretations perfectly and it now holds a high level of confidence in its resource model. It adds that drilling has identified several high-grade intersections up-dip from previous holes and that it expects to build shallow gold ounces closer to surface than estimated in the current model
And that would be a positive when it comes to examining mine economics in its scoping studies. The company says it will update and extend its resource wireframes at Mulga Bill to include the latest intercepts in preparation for an update planned for completion before the end of the year.
The RC rig is currently drilling the final resource definition holes at Mulga Bill and the company then plans to unleash its air-core (AC) rig onto a program of reconnaissance drilling on other new targets at Side Well South. Two deep diamond holes were also recently drilled at Mulga Bill and have been logged and cut, with samples being submitted for assay and results expected next month.
With grades like these and lots of promising open ends, Mulga Bill could prove to be a winner.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.aur ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
