Meeka Metals has recorded more shallow gold hits outside the defined mineral resource on the western flank of the company’s Turnberry deposit that forms part of its greater Murchison gold project.
Turnberry currently has a resource of 11.3 million tonnes grading 1.7g/t for 610,000 ounces of gold with an update scheduled before the end of the year.
Assay highlights from the latest air-core drilling campaign show a 12m intercept going 2.01 grams per tonne gold from 20m including 4m at 5.23 g/t. Another 12m section recorded 1.7 g/t gold from 16m including 4m at 3.3 g/t.
A 16m intercept at 1.18 g/t gold from 96m including 4m going 3.1 g/t gold was another feature in addition to 8m reading 2.09 g/t gold from 36m including 4m at 3.78 g/t.
Meeka says the shallow oxide gold was intersected outside the previously established mineral resource and confirms mineralisation to the north and into a previously untested zone. Drilling also targeted a potential southern extension to the western flank mineralisation that also returned shallow high-grade oxide gold.
Meeka Metals Managing Director, Tim Davidson said: “Shallow, high-grade oxide mineralisation added to the mineral resource through this drilling will have a meaningful impact on the robust outcomes of our December 2021 scoping study and will be included in the upcoming pre-feasibility study.”
Just last month the explorer intersected a new zone of shallow high-grade oxide gold at the St Anne’s deposit, prompting the company to defer its planned release of the prospect’s mineral resource until the March quarter next year.
Headline figures from the St Anne’s assays include 12 metres at 2.33 grams per tonne gold from 44m, including 4m grading 3.96 g/t gold and 4m going 1.99 g/t gold from 52m. Meeka believes mineralisation at the expanding prospect occurs in a very similar geological setting to Turnberry.
The assay results come from the company’s RC drilling campaign targeting mineralisation at Murchison below the shear zone that runs around 100m to 150m beneath the surface. Additional results from the current program include 8m at 1.22 g/t gold from 124m and 4m going 1.54 g/t from 128m.
The company’s Murchison gold project already lays claim to a 1.1 million ounce resource and is strategically positioned next to a 1.8 million tonne per annum gold mill and a key highway.
Meeka is currently waiting for the results of metallurgical test work from the St Anne’s deposit that are expected before the end of the year.
With those results and a host of others all due in before the crowd sings auld lang syne, Meeka could well be set for a cracking start to 2023.
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By Matt Birney
