Toro confirms gold at Wiluna nickel project

Geochemical assays have confirmed a significant gold intersection for Toro Energy about 80m north of where the company originally hit massive nickel sulphides at its Dusty project near Wiluna in WA.

Diamond drilling struck a 4m intersection at 1.4 grams per tonne gold from 188m including a 2m hit going 2.2 g/t from 188m. The company says the latest result confirms the gold prospectivity of the site after a series of drill holes proved positive for gold anomalism.

Toro has also intersected base metal and gold pathfinders in similar stratigraphic locations to the latest gold discovery. A significant breccia zone with quartz-carbonate-sulphide infill was intersected beneath the company’s Houli Dooley nickel sulphide discovery that is 9.85m thick from 333.5m downhole. The segment returned a 1.15m section going 1 per cent copper, 0.12 per cent zinc, 0.062 per cent lead, 0.09 g/t gold, 20g/t silver in addition to anomalous cadmium, molybdenum and tellurium.

Toro says the latest intersections beneath the Dusty komatiite show the prospect and surrounding target areas are prospective for gold mineralisation. The company says further drilling targeting nickel sulphides will also be tested for gold.

It is not the first time the company has discovered gold at the site. In 2019 Toro discovered a gold anomaly with a 2m intercept at 0.57 g/t gold from 182m whilst a second hole recorded a 5m section going 0.49 g/t gold from 187m.

The Dusty project falls within Toro’s fully owned Yandal gold project and is just 50km east of BHP’s world-class Mt Keith nickel deposit.

Earlier this month the company unearthed high-grade gold results from geochemical assays of rock chip samples collected to the south of the company’s Golden Ways target that forms part of Yandal. Toro collected a total of 85 specimens from the historical New England prospect area about 2km south of Golden Ways with results returning impressive grades including one sample at 70.4 grams per tonne gold.

More than a dozen rock chip samples recorded gold concentration of more than 1 g/t whilst an additional 17 sample showed anomalous results above 0.01 g/t gold. Additional assay highlights include samples reading 27.87 g/t, 22.4 g/t and 12.4 g/t gold.

The recent field work by Toro was aimed at investigating the gold prospectivity outside the two main central veins at Golden Ways with a focus on the New England target.

The company has been focused on nickel results at Yandal over the past six months where drilling at its recently discovered Dimma deposit hit massive and semi-massive nickel sulphides.

Now that the gold prospectivity at the site has been confirmed, the market will be keeping a close eye on what Toro can unearth with its next drill campaign.

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