Si6 Metals has upped its gold resources to 154,000 ounces for the Korong and Waihi deposits that make up its 100 per cent owned Monument gold project near Laverton in the north-eastern Goldfields of Western Australia. The update has added more than 100,000 ounces of gold to the previous estimate and the company is eyeing further resource and exploration drilling at the project.
The new global resource clocks in at three million tonnes going 1.4 grams per tonne gold for 139,000 ounces at Korong, with another 0.2Mt at 2.1 g/t gold for 15,000 ounces of the precious yellow metal at Waihi.
The company says mineralised shoots from both deposits remain open in all directions and future drilling may lift the resources significantly.
Both Korong and Waihi are at least partly amenable to open pit mining due to the outcropping nature of mineralisation with the majority of the resource lying less than 200m deep.
The resource update comes on the back of more than 4,000m of drilling and adds to the previous 855,000 tonne resource going 1.8 g/t for 50,000 ounces of gold at Korong.
Monument takes in some 310 square kilometres of tenure in the renowned Laverton gold district which hosts several multi-million-ounce gold mines including AngloGold Ashanti’s nine-million-ounce Sunrise Dam operation.
The project covers about 30km of under-explored banded iron formation, or “BIF” mineralisation that is interpreted to be the same host-rock as the 1.4-million-ounce Westralia gold deposit located along strike to the south-east.
Westralia is owned by ASX-listed Dacian Gold and is part of Dacian’s Mount Morgans 2.1-million-ounce resource base in the region.
Si6 Metals Executive Chairman Patrick Holywell said:“The release of the mineral resource estimates for the Korong-Waihi prospects is a great result for Si6. We now have a resource of circa 154 thousand ounces which sets a solid foundation. We will continue to focus on finding resources that support a longer term and potentially larger scale mining operation. We will continue to focus on brownfield exploration where we can grow existing resources but we are also excited with other greenfield targets outside of the BIF horizon. One of these greenfield targets will be tested in September with an air core program over a number of high priority syenite intrusive targets.”
Importantly, management says only 10 per cent of the 30km strike at Monument has been tested with reverse circulation drilling and six priority targets along the BIF formation are already ripe for drill testing.
Drilling of multiple ‘brownfields’ targets where historical drilling returned similar grade intercepts to Korong and Waihi is anticipated in the future. The company says the targets have not been followed-up since the 1990s.
The infill and step-out drilling will look to delineate new resources at Monument as the company aims to grow a resource base to support larger scale mining.
Si6 is also set to get the rods turning at regional ‘greenfield’ targets at the project. Several high priority prospects identified via geochemical sampling, geophysical interpretation and evaluation of historical data are set to be tested in the coming weeks.
Post its bumper resource upgrade, Si6 Metals already boasts a stellar gold inventory with more than 150,000 ounces of the lucrative yellow metal at Monument. With a bag full of targets begging to be drilled the company now appears well on track to become a significant player in the gold-rich region of Western Australia.
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