Bulls N’ Bears Big Hits this week examines some notable intercepts revealed on the ASX, including Rox Resources’ 6-metre hit at 19.08g/t gold from 220m at its Youanmi project in Western Australia. The headline intercept included 3m at 36.87g/t from 221m. Other interesting drill hits from last week were reported at Koba Resources’ Yarramba uranium project in hot South Australian uranium territory and Ausgold Limited’s Katanning gold project in the WA Wheatbelt.
Let’s dive in.
Rox Resources (ASX: RXL)
Youanmi gold project, Mid West, Western Australia
Hit: 6m at 19.08g/t from 220m, including 3m at 36.87g/t gold from 221m
Rox Resources has jagged an impressive string of high-grade gold hits from its reverse circulation drilling at its Prospect target within its Youanmi gold project in Western Australia, including a 6-metre hit at 19.08 grams per tonne (g/t) from 220m. The headline hit included 3m at 36.87g/t gold from 221m.
The Prospect target is in the centre of the old flooded main pit area of the renowned Youanmi mining centre, which is surrounded by other million-ounce mines and major gold producers.
Youanmi has a well-established record of production with a total reported output of 667,000 ounces from both open pits and underground mining. From its modern history since the 1980s, Youanmi comes with extensive site infrastructure, a good airstrip and an underground decline, giving Rox a significant leg-up to future exploration and development.
The next three best holes from the same target area produced gold intercepts of 7m at 9.14g/t from 195m, including 3m going 18.3g/t from 196m, 4m at 6.87g/t from 169m and 8m going 1.87g/t from 203m, including 3m at 4.08g/t from 204m.
The adjacent Youanmi target, 300m northwest of Prospect at the northwest end of the old main open pit footprint, also produced two respectable gold hits from diamond drilling of 5.82m at 4.51g/t from 379m and 2.09m going 6.80g/t from 436.9m.
Tantalisingly, two holes at the nearby Interceptor target, a separate lens 300m southeast of Prospect at the southern end of the old main pit, produced two diamond core intercepts of 1m at 40.93g/t from 145.1m and 8m running 4.32g/t from 52m.
The current drilling program aims to infill the gap at the emerging Prospect area, in the existing resource zone between the Pollard target - 380m south of Prospect – past the Interceptor lens and northwards towards the Youanmi target.
The company is encouraged by the possibility that Prospect may bring forward additional shallow, high-grade gold ounces in the company’s definitive feasibility study mine plan.
Drilling to date has focussed on the main deposits along the high-grade, 1.8-kilometre-long Youanmi mineralised corridor.
The latest updates also say the drilling program is on schedule and within budget to deliver 35,000m of drilling for $11 million of expenditure by the end of April.
About 15,000m of diamond drilling and 7500m of reverse circulation drilling have been completed to date.
Rox’s sample processing is up to date with more than 10,775 samples received by the laboratory. Drilling also continues at Pollard and further north along the trend through the Prospect, Youanmi North and United North targets.
Further to the northwest, the Kathleen and Rebel open pit zones continue the trend along the main line of workings, where January assay results confirm shallow mineralised extensions beneath both open pits that continues below the current global resource outline.
As at mid-February, Rox is sitting on a high-grade probable mineral reserve of 3.8 million tonnes at 4.4g/t gold for 546,000 ounces of gold, within a total mineral resource of 16.2mt at 4.4g/t gold for 2.3m ounces of gold.
Management says its results from the northern end of Youanmi are also important, as these are all close to but outside the existing resource and mine plan, providing confidence the company could add more ounces to the resource that would quickly flow through to the ore reserve and mine plan.
Rox currently has five drills turning at the site aiming to expand the resource and lift its categorisation to underpin a revised reserve and mine plan.
Other site activities continue as planned, with remedial works completed on evaporation ponds and the arrival of piping onsite in preparation for pit dewatering.
Koba Resources Limited (ASX: KOB)
Yarramba uranium project, South Australia
Hit: 1.0m at 558ppm uranium oxide equivalent from 85.9m, including 0.4m at 1001ppm uranium oxide equivalent
Koba Resources’ drill rig in action at the recently discovered high-grade, 4km-long Everest paleochannel uranium prospect in South Australia. Credit: File
Koba Resources has discovered a new high-grade uranium prospect at its Yarramba project in South Australia, now named Everest, that extends along more than 4km of a north-south trending 500m-wide central section of the primary 2km-wide Yarramba palaeochannel.
Multiple drill intercepts with grades above 1000 parts per million uranium oxide equivalent were returned in results from initial broad-spaced drilling along lines spaced from 400m to 1000m apart. A headline 1m hit assayed uranium oxide equivalent from 85.9m, including 0.4m going 1001ppm uranium oxide equivalent.
Other significant intercepts include 2.1m at 330ppm from 95.7m, including 0.3m at 1012ppm uranium oxide equivalent, 0.8m at 558ppm uranium oxide equivalent from 94.7m, including 0.3m at 1037ppm and 0.9m running 535ppm uranium oxide equivalent from 90.1m.
Koba’s Everest mineralisation was discovered during an initial broad-spaced maiden drilling program of 22 holes for 2514m of drilling at the adjacent Mt John deposit, targeting a previously untested part of the Yarramba paleochannel.
Everest is a mere 4km north of Boss Energy’s Jason deposit and about 13km north of Boss’s Honeymoon mine.
The Jason deposit comprises an inferred JORC-compliant resource of 6.2mt at 790ppm uranium oxide for 10.7 million pounds of contained uranium oxide, while Honeymoon contains an estimated mineral resource of 36mlbs of uranium oxide at a grade of 660ppm uranium oxide.
Koba’s Everest target also lies about 30km northwest of Marmota’s Saffron deposit, in that company’s Junction Dam exploration licence, which comprises an inferred 5.4mlb of uranium oxide at a grade of 557ppm.
Saffron is midway between Marmota’s other Bridget and Yolanda uranium exploration targets. Taken together along the entire 12km spread of the three targets, Marmota estimates a conceptual exploration target has the potential to exist within the area containing the three deposits ranging from 22mlbs to 33Mlbs and grading between 400ppm and 700ppm uranium oxide.
Most importantly for Koba is that the Mt John and Everest mineralised zones lie within the same continuous Yarramba palaeochannel system containing Boss’s Jason and Honeymoon deposits and also Marmota’s trio of deposits. All of the targets are disposed along about 50km of the same channel.
Everest’s initial drilling program has identified a previously unknown high-grade uranium mineralised trend that remains open both along and across the trend of the channel, which Koba says is notable for its high-grade mineralisation.
The company now plans further drilling at Everest to assess the extent of mineralisation, particularly to flesh out its lateral and depth limits and identify its thickest and highest-grade zones.
The latest find brings Koba’s discovery tally to three high grade (>1000 ppm) uranium-rich zones - the Berber, Chivas and Everest prospects - since the company initiated its step-out reconnaissance exploration drilling in October last year.
Koba was also able to demonstrate that its Oban channel deposit also comprises shallow, thick high-grade zones and offers significant potential between Chivas and Berber for additional discoveries.
The discoveries confirm considerable potential remains to discover additional high-grade mineralisation within the 5000 square kilometre Yarramba project, which includes 250km of interpreted but largely under-explored paleochannels.
Koba’s maiden drilling program of 123 holes for 12,807m of drilling at the Yarramba project is now complete and the company’s planning for the next phase of drilling is well underway.
It is well-advanced in the process of obtaining additional permits to allow continued testing of its three new high-grade Everest, Berber and Chivas discoveries and to continue testing other high-priority targets on the property.
When the required permits have been received, Koba will kick off its second phase of drilling in the second quarter of the year, which will build on the initial successes of its maiden drilling program.
This will include testing many high-priority targets including extensional and in-fill drilling at Everest and extensional drilling at Berber, which remains open in all directions and where the final hole intercepted 1.6m at 1026ppm uranium oxide equivalent.
Koba also plans to target the sparsely drilled 1.5km corridor between the Berber prospect and the Oban uranium deposit.
Extensional drilling will also continue at the high-grade Chivas prospect that remains open to the east and south. Significant results from last year’s drilling program at Chivas yielded 1.0m at 629ppm uranium oxide equivalent, including 0.5m assaying 1028ppm uranium oxide.
Extensional drilling will also be undertaken at the Mt John target area, which remains open in all directions and features a best intercept of 1.3m at 501ppm uranium oxide.
Two new targets north of Mt John, which have a similar setting to the high-grade Everest trend, will also be tested.
Ausgold Limited (ASX: AUC)
Dingo deposit, southern zone, Katanning gold project, Western Australia
Hit: 10m at 10.55g/t gold from 42m, including 2m at 50.57g/t gold from 43m
Ausgold’s assays from the company’s current drilling program at its Katanning gold project in WA have revealed a best intercept in the southern Dingo zone, with 10m at 10.55g/t gold from 42m, including 2m assaying 50.57g/t gold from 43m.
The headline hit is accompanied by a second-best intercept of 22m running 2.16g/t gold from 117m, including 14m going 3.03g/t gold from 123m.
A third-best intercept gave up 11m at 2.80g/t gold from 49m, including 6m assaying 4.82g/t gold from 52m.
The best and third-best holes are adjacent to each other at about 80m spacings in the northern quarter of the $4000 optimised Dingo pit design outline, while the second hole comprises one of five holes near the centre of the design.
Ausgold says the results are above the average grade and tenor of the Dingo resource and have highlighted new zones of high-grade mineralisation outside previously drilled areas.
The Katanning gold project lies within a major mineralised structural corridor, with exploration to date outlining a trend about 17km long hosting gold mineralisation across three key zones, tagged as the Northern, Central and Southern zones.
The Southern zone embraces the Dingo and Lukin resource areas and represents the southern strike extension of the project structure, which shares the same mafic host rocks as the nearby Central zone.
Drilling results in Ausgold’s latest announcement represent data from 23 holes for 2778m drilled in the Southern zone at the Dingo and Lukin target area, and 10 holes for 1338m drilled at the regional Grasmere project area.
The Dingo deposit comprises a sheeted, multi-lode, 35-degree east-dipping gold system that currently hosts a resource of 434,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 0.94g/t. It includes a primary high-grade, pipe-shaped gold shoot.
Modelling by the company’s geologists identified gaps in the drilling pattern greater than 40m along and between sections where the high-grade shoot is modelled within - and directly beneath - the optimised pit design.
The company says its ongoing 19,000m reverse circulation drilling campaign has three key objectives. These include de-risking areas within the existing project’s mineral resource, which it anticipates will comprise its early mining inventory, extending the existing project resource, and identifying new regional gold potential in the surrounding prospects.
To date, 161 holes have been drilled for 12,344m as part of the current campaign. Results from the Northern zone and regional prospects along the Stanley Thrust are expected in the next quarter.
Nine reverse circulation holes were drilled for 1122m in the zones to test Ausgold’s high-grade model, improve the grade of the Dingo resource, infill gaps identified during modelling and de-risk potential future mining.
Ausgold says the drilling program at Dingo has been highly successful and returned significant results from infill and extensional drilling targeting its high-grade zones.
The nine holes drilled at Dingo returned wide and unexpected shallow higher-grade intercepts of gold mineralisation within 150m of surface in the Southern zone.
The company’s regional drilling at Grasmere, about 7km southwest of the Dingo resource, also identified mineralisation within the targeted prospective Katanning project mine stratigraphy.
Augold proposes further work at the project to include diamond drilling at the Dateline target in the project’s Northern zone.
Dateline hosts some of the best grades in the project, up to 11.74g/t gold from 218.9m, and four new holes are proposed for about 1600m to extend the high-grade component a further 150m down-plunge.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Doug Bright
