Meeka Metals has confirmed the presence of high-grade gold at its Circle Valley project near Esperance after assays from a diamond drilling campaign produced impressive results and hit gold in every hole.
Late last year the company completed a five-hole diamond drilling program aiming to gather data and test a 1200m by 400m gold anomaly that was detected during a previous RC campaign.
Assay highlights from the latest drilling show a 5.6m intercept going 4.63 grams per tonne gold from 76.4m including a 1m hit at an impressive 17.70 g/t gold from 79m. Meeka also struck a deeper 4.2m section going 2.9 g/t gold from 132m containing 0.4m at 13.57 g/t gold from 135m.
The company says its latest results sit along strike from a suite of previously reported hits including 23m at 5.09 g/t gold from 13m, 24m going 1.21 g/t from 24m, 16m running 3.06 g/t from 32m and 10m grading 4.72 g/t gold from 120m.
The explorer believes the latest results show there are at least two parallel lodes and it has already begun an RC drill campaign targeting extensions to the north-east and the potential of additional lodes.
Meeka Metals Managing Director, Tim Davidson said: “The high-grade gold in this drilling and the broad gold zones returned from RC drilling in 2022 support our view that Circle Valley is a significant gold opportunity.”
In addition to the impressive gold results, the company has also completed an infill and extensional drilling campaign focused on targeting rare earths as it looks to deliver a maiden mineral resource during the June quarter. Assay results are expected over the next two months.
Last year the explorer produced some impressive results from its maiden drill program at the operation with highlights including one assay that went 12m at 2690 parts per million total rare earth oxides, or “TREO” from 20m including 4m at a mammoth 6894ppm TREO from 24m. Additional assays showed similar results with 8m going 2766ppm from 28m including 4m at 5031ppm TREO from 32m.
Importantly, the company has also recorded consistently high neodymium and praseodymium levels with a standout figure of 31 per cent and several intersections reporting between 20 to 30 per cent. Recent assays also returned high grades of scandium of up to 54 grams per tonne.
The two rare earths are essential components in the manufacture of permanent magnets for electric vehicles and wind turbines.
Meeka owns 100 per cent of two exploration licences at Circle Valley covering 222 square kilometres of predominantly freehold agricultural land currently used for crop and livestock farming. The project is one of two rare earths plays the company has near WA’s southern coast with the second being Cascade to the south-west. Cascade was pegged on the back of Circle Valley’s potential and is an impressive tenure of more than 2000 square kilometres.
With impressive gold results in addition to its serious rare earth assays, the market will certainly be keeping a close eye on what Meeka can unearth next at its Circle Valley project.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
