Meeka Metals has delivered exactly what the market loves to see at a producing high-grade gold mine - shallow, thick, high-grade hits that sit outside the current mine plan.
The standout intercepts from the latest results at the company’s Andy Well underground mine perched in WA’s Murchison district lit up the assay logs to deliver 4m at 27.82 grams per tonne gold from 167m, including 2m at a handsome 54.43g/t gold, alongside a second hole with 8m assaying 9.35g/t from 84m including 2m going 34.88g/t gold.
A third hole bored through 12m going 3.8g/t gold from 44m, including 4m running 10.26g/t.
The results are supported by a string of eight more holes exhibiting notable widths of high-grades at better than 4g/t gold.
The intercepts lie directly along strike from the current southern ore development drives on the Wilber Lode, where on-reef development faces are reportedly running well ahead of the average reserves grade.
Meeka Metals managing director Tim Davidson said: “The high gold grades in this drilling are typical of the Andy Well mineralisation and are likely to extend the mining footprint by 450m to the south, a significant increase to the current mine plan. The high grade gold remains open down plunge and we see strong potential to further expand the Resource and production plan in this area.”
Fresh surface reverse circulation (RC) drilling immediately south of the Andy Well underground has extended the Wilber Lode a hefty 450m along strike, with all significant mineralisation defined to date sitting shallower ~170m vertical depth.
Meeka says the positive grade reconciliations are typical of Andy Well’s famously nuggety, laminated quartz reefs that regularly throw up stone carrying better than 100g/t gold.
Very little drilling has tested below about 100 m depth on the new southerly extension and the system remains wide-open at depth, with the new results spotlighting clear potential to grow the resource and reserves tonnage in the shallower part of the mine that is slated to feed the mill over the next two years.
Underground diamond drilling at Andy Well is already underway, with first results due in the March 2026 quarter.
Elsewhere on the Murchison ground, surface RC rigs are chasing the high-grade shoots at Turnberry - fresh off last week’s 8m at 14.8g/t gold winner - and are also running first-pass scout RC holes along the 3km space between Turnberry and St Anne’s, within the greater 20km-long Fairway shear corridor.
Meeka is wasting no time on the back of these hits, locking in resource growth drilling at Turnberry for the current December quarter and the company expects to map out the processing-plant expansion pathway by mid-2026.
For a company that already owns a mill and a suite of high-grade deposits, adding shallow, high-grade ounces directly along strike from active development headings is about as good as it gets.
The Andy Well underground mine is clearly still delivering results from its fresh high-grade ground and the latest hits should translate into extra years of strong margins once they are brought into the mine plan.
In an industry where most shallow high-grade systems have long been drilled out, Meeka keeps demonstrating that Andy Well and its surrounding shear zones still have plenty of golden surprises left – and every new metre of strike keeps the production pipeline flowing.
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By Doug Bright
