Meeka Metals has bolstered the 685,000-ounce resource at 2 grams per tonne gold at its Turnberry deposit in Western Australia’s Murchison region after delivering another round of high-grade oxide gold from 18 holes of infill drilling.
The company says it is now pushing hard to finalise its development-ready status for next year in order to kick off mining. The latest round of results include 18m at 2.21g/t gold from 60m including 4m at 6.8g/t and 7m at 4.46g/t with 1m at 26.3g/t.
Turnberry is a shallow, high-grade deposit, which is clear of any past mining activity. Its resource comprises part of Meeka’s 100 per cent-owned, 1.2-million-ounce Murchison gold project and it is ideally located about 30km north-east of WA’s historical gold mining hub of Meekathara – a former gold rush town from the 1890s and 1980s that continues to display its auriferous riches to this day.
The deposit is adjacent to several multi-million-ounce gold mines and given the history of the area, it is no wonder it has well-established infrastructure and various under-utilised toll mills within a 150km radius, giving it the potential to reduce capital expenditure costs.
The mineralised trends are part of a north-south-trending system, with the deposit situated on the northern section of the bigger Mount Magnet and Youanmi shear zones, but occurring within the Fairway shear zone of the Gnaweeda greenstone belt. Meeka believes it represents a compelling, 25km-long growth exploration target, as some 90 of the ground remains inadequately tested.
Meeka Metals managing director Tim Davidson said: “We continue to complete key works for our high-grade Murchison Gold Project including this drilling, which is delivering strong results and supporting the Company’s decision to position the asset for development. These assays confirm, and in some places expand the broad zones of high grade gold in the Mineral Resource. They will inform the open pit grade control model and updated production plan, further supporting the development ready status of the Murchison Project in early 2024.”
Evidence of the site’s potential has recently been received through shallow air-core (AC) drilling results from the western flank of Turnberry, with assays returning 32m at 3.09g/t gold from 32m including 20m at 4.53g/t – none of which are part of the existing resource and give the project some imposing expansion potential in the shallow realm.
Meeka holds a 281-square-kilometre landholding of granted mining leases and exploration licenses within the fertile district, with a Turnberry feasibility study virtually hot off the press from July. The study outlines 80,000-ounce per annum gold production in the first eight years and an undiscounted free cash flow of $363 million $2750 per ounce of gold.
Today’s Australian gold price is hovering at about $3100 an ounce.
The Turnberry resource is underpinned by a high-grade probable ore reserve of 410,000 ounces at 3.1g/t gold. Adding to the value, there are various treatment options for the ore including toll treatment, development of a new standalone carbon-in-leach plant and the possible recommissioning and expansion of the existing Andy Well processing facility – a sure-fire way to make a project work.
Meeka says its current round of infill intercepts are expected to upgrade the the mineral resource figure as it validates the continuity of mineralisation across the 1.7km strike length of the deposit to its current depth of 200m, which is only constrained by the density of the drilling.
Management believes the project now holds strong potential to extend into the underground, highlighting another possible string to its bow and this has been confirmed from deeper scout drilling where high grade intersections below the planned pit include high-grade lode up to 62.8g/t gold from 366m.
While the company awaits delivery of results for the final three infill holes from around the periphery of the feasibility study, it is also preparing submissions for the remaining development approvals, pending the delivery of final third-party reports in support of the submission.
The favourable feasibility of the project presents amenable results for Meeka to get into development next year and with the Australian gold price surging, it would be a nice kickstart to the New Year.
Gold can be a hard mistress, but the potential successes at Turnberry have better odds in light of it being a previously unmined deposit.
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