Meeka Metals’ pending declaration of a maiden resource at its St Anne’s discovery in the Murchison region of WA has received a serious shot in the arm after RC drilling churned out visible gold in chips acquired beneath a parcel of high-grade mineralisation.
The company aims to deliver the estimate at the site in December and Meeka believes this latest round of drilling is of such significance it has deferred the delivery of a pre-feasibility study, or “PFS” across the wider operation until mid-next year to allow for the results to be incorporated into the study.
Hitting visible gold in chips during fresh drilling – with an additional diamond drilling campaign to come – certainly bodes well for the upcoming maiden resource. Notably, the visible gold was extracted below a pair of previously announced intercepts which also caught the eye, including 32m at 16.07 grams per tonne gold from 48m and 20m at 20.74 g/t gold from 48m.
Each of the strikes housed an even higher grade component running 16m going 28.59 g/t gold and 16m at 24.86 g/t gold respectively.
Of the 5282m sunk into the prospect to date, the results of 5 RC and 38 air core holes remain outstanding which are now eagly anticipated by the WA junior. The company is no doubt hoping the pending results and ongoing shallow strike extensional drilling north of St Anne’s will add to what is already a large gold system at the site.
Meeka’s operation currently boasts a measured resource of 150,000 tonnes at 11.4 grams per tonne for 55,000 ounces. The figure is derived from a pair of depsiots within the Murchison project - Andy Well and Turnberry.
Its next exploratory steps at St Anne’s include the commencement of a diamond drilling program to follow up on the RC program. The company plans to use the next campaign to target primary mineralisation below and along strike from the hole which returned the visible precious metal occurrences.
The company says the adjournment between the two programs will allow it to optimise activity at St Anne’s, refine work across its other mining centres and hopefully deliver a bumper set of numbers that will flow into the PFS.
The PFS follows a December 2021 scoping study that envisioned the Murchison project could deliver an average gold production rate of about 50,000 ounces per annum over eight years.
Further south near Esperance in WA, the multi-commodity company has commenced a diamond drilling program at its wholly owned Circle Valley gold and rare earths project. Meeka aims to use the campaign to collect geological data ahead of a more extensive program expected to kick off early in the new year.
To date, work at Circle Valley has demonstrated the tenure’s shallow, high-grade mineralisation with grades as high as 2439 parts per million total rare earth oxides, or “TREO”. The ground has also been found to house a high concentration of Neodymium and Praseodymium – key ingredients in the production of electric vehicles.
Circle Valley, along with the proximal Cascade project form part of Meeka’s rare earth portfolio – a 2500 square kilometre landholding that boasts solid infrastructure, fertile geology and high-grade clay-hosted mineralisation.
Mineralisation at Cascade grades up to 5791 ppm TREO.
With the Murchison gold project appearing to grow by the hour and a highly prospective rare earths project under its belt at Circle Valley, Meeka seems to have the wind at its back as it sails towards what is now a highly anticipated intial mineral resource at St Anne’s.
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By Matt Birney
