ASX-listed Aurumin has embarked on a mapping and soil sampling campaign across the company’s Greater Sandstone gold project in WA’s Mid West region as it looks to generate targets for further exploration work. Aurumin’s program aims to cover the majority of its tenement package and has kicked off at the explorer’s newly acquired ground that was purchased from private outfit Mining Equities for 500,000 Aurumin shares and a one per cent net smelter royalty.
In June Aurumin moved to expand its footprint at the project with the acquisition, seeing it as an exploration opportunity that complements its existing 784,000-ounce gold resource and processing plant at the company’s nearby Central Sandstone gold project. The portion of the soil sampling covering its fresh ground is two-thirds complete with the currently collected samples already submitted to the lab for analysis. Most of the ongoing program covers areas sparsely tested or untested by either soil sampling or reconnaissance drilling.
Aurumin Managing Director, Brad Valiukas said: “E57/1140 has seen relatively little exploration work and remains under explored, despite being just 4km from the existing processing plant location at the closest point. This soil sampling, on E57/1140 and other tenements, is an important and systematic step in moving the project forward.”
The company is also in the process of tabling an updated resource model for Central Sandstone as it looks to combine two deposits into one. It expects to release the results of its modelling this month along with plans for another round of drilling at the project.
In December last year, Aurumin announced its intention to purchase ASX-listed Middle Island Resources’ gold assets and processing plant in the Sandstone region for $12m — $6m in cash and $6m in shares. The assets — in addition to the newly purchased tenement from Mining Equities — now constitute Aurumin’s Central and Greater Sandstone gold projects.
Middle Island’s scoping study found an operation at Sandstone could be particularly attractive if the capacity of its processing plant was upgraded and additional mill feed was secured. With this in mind, Aurumin has already run the numbers on incorporating ore from its 64,700-ounce Johnson Range gold project 150km to the south, however the explorer’s ongoing campaign might just lead it to some more ounces closer to home.
Gold appears to have reclaimed further territory this week after the price of the precious yellow metal climbed to the US$1720 per ounce level after bottoming out on a yearly low of about US$1621 last week. However, if the metal intends on reaching its yearly high of US$2052 on March 8, there is still a long climb ahead.
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By Matt Birney
