ASX-listed explorer Anglo Australian Resources has encountered deep, down-plunge extensions to the known mineralisation at its Mandilla gold project 20km south-east of Kambalda, with visible gold showing up in its latest diamond drill core.
The Perth-based company says this is indicative of a significant “nugget effect” within the gold mineralisation at the Mandilla East discovery.
Notable intersections from the first four holes of a 13-hole diamond drilling program totalling 3,600m were 76.5m going 1.21 grams per tonne gold from 296m including 1.0m at 42.09 g/t from 321.1m, and 13.4m at 7.02 g/t from 180.4m including 0.9m at 87.89 g/t from 185.3m.
According to Anglo, the four holes confirm the presence of gold well below the previous known extent of mineralisation, with visible gold logged within the quartz vein zones of all the significant diamond drill intersections.
The 76.5m assay result is considered significant not only because of the thick mineralised intercept but also because gold is still present at such depths. It represents the deepest mineralised intersection to date at Mandilla.
Anglo Australian Managing Director, Marc Ducler said: “The current diamond drill program at the Mandilla gold project has two key objectives – to increase our understanding of the structural controls that influence mineralisation and to extend known mineralisation at depth. It has been successful on both fronts with broad zones of deeper mineralisation encountered highlighting the growing scale of the discovery.”
“We are keenly waiting assay results from the remaining holes in the program – with recently completed diamond holes intersecting albite/silica alteration, quartz veining and numerous occurrences of visible gold.”
The company is planning to kick off a 10,000m RC drill program in the current quarter that is designed to infill Mandilla East mineralisation to a 40m x 40m drill density over most of the delineated strike extent and test extensions to the Mandilla East and Mandilla South prospects.
It is aiming to release a maiden mineral resource estimate for Mandilla in the December quarter this year.
The Mandilla project lies in the northern Widgiemooltha greenstone belt, which hosts several nickel and gold deposits, with the nearest gold deposit being the historic high-grade Wattle Dam open-pit and underground mine located just 3km to the west of Mandilla.
Wattle Dam, which operated between 2006 and 2012, was described by owner, Ramelius Resources as a company-making mine. It produced about 286,000 ounces of gold from 880,000 tonnes or ore grading an incredible and unheard-of average these days of 10.1 g/t gold. The underground component, which accounted for most of the output, was 438,000t at a whopping 14.9 g/t for about 210,000oz.
In 2006-07, Anglo Australian produced about 23,000oz of gold from ore that averaged a recovered grade of about 7.5 g/t and was mined from two shallow open pits at Mandilla West. The company was targeting paleochannel gold deposits at the time, with the gold, it says, likely sourced from in-situ mineralised quartz vein deposits located nearby.
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By Matt Birney
