Aruma Resources has set the rods in motion at its flagship Salmon Gums gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields as it looks to follow up previous bonanza hits of 5m running at 50.2 grams per tonne gold.
The current probe will plunge 5,500m into the company’s Iris and Thistle prospects as it aims to extend the known gold footprint in addition to testing a series of strong coincident gold and arsenic in soil anomalies.
Previous drilling and soil sampling has highlighted a 4.3km mineralised envelope along the same greenstone belt that houses Pantoro’s high-grade Scotia mining centre, just 30km up the track.
The Scotia deposit churned out 811,000 tonnes at 5.9 g/t gold for 155,000 ounces between 1987 and 1996 for Central Norseman Gold Corporation. Pantoro has since carved out a mineral resource of 15.5 million tonnes at 2.0 g/t for 1 million ounces.
Aruma’s maiden drilling program last year produced some exceptional hits including a one metre section grading a whopping 224 g/t gold from just 44 metres and a 4m hit going 4.26 g/t from 105m downhole with an internal metre at 13.35 g/t.
Following on from its successful stint with the drill rig, the company completed a high-resolution airborne magnetic survey and ground gravity survey over the project area. The combined results fed into a detailed geological and structural interpretation of the project and helped shore up targets for the current drill program which is now underway.
Management says work completed to date reinforces its exploration model that the project has the potential to host high-grade Norseman-style greenstone gold mineralisation.
In addition to drilling, the company is charging ahead with an auger soil geochemistry program slated to commence next month. A 5km strike length of elevated gold and arsenic anomalism previously outlined in soil samples will be followed up with the program that will look to test the horizon below the tilled topsoil layer that has been disturbed by decades of farming.
Along with gold, the samples will be assayed for a full gamut of elements in the hunt for any indication of the treasures that may be buried below.
Aruma Resources managing director Peter Schwann said:“Salmon Gums is our flagship gold asset and a core exploration focus for the Company. We are delighted to commence the 2023 drilling campaign, which will follow up on our previous bonanza-grade gold intersections and seek to extend the high-grade mineralised area at the Iris and Thistle prospects. In addition, the auger drilling program will seek to extend the Project’s mineralised footprint, particularly in the southern extent of the Project.”
The gold price is currently trading at an eye-catching AU$2998 per ounce amidst fears of another major financial institution, namely Deutsche Bank suffering from a case of the wobbles.
With Aruma’s find sitting in a stretch of prospective greenstone belt along strike of the evolving Scotia mining centre, the company will be keen to see if the drill rig can latch on to something as productive as its fruitful neighbour.
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