Drill testing at Meeka Metals’ Murchison gold project has intersected a new zone of shallow high-grade oxide gold at the St Anne’s deposit, prompting the company to defer its planned release of St Anne’s initial mineral resource until the March quarter next year.
Headline figures from the new assays include 12 metres at 2.33 grams per tonne gold from 44m, including 4m grading 3.96g/t gold and 4m going 1.99g/t gold from 52m.
Meeka has named the new mineralisation that sits 320m northeast of the Driver lode the Brassie lode and management says it remains open to the north and at depth.
Following the discovery of oxide gold mineralisation at St Anne’s earlier this month which the company dubbed the Wood lode, the Brassie lode is the second conceptual target at St Anne’s to deliver shallow high-grade gold.
Both Wood and Brassie remain open along strike and Meeka is conducting shallow drilling to target the northern extensions to the Brassie mineralisation. Assays are also pending for two shallow 40m-spaced drill fence lines to the north.
Drilling also continues to extend the strike of the oxide gold at the Driver lode where diamond drilling is targeting primary mineralisation below the oxide horizon.
New assay results have also been released from shallow drilling at Driver and Wood, with the pick of the intersections including 8m at 4.54g/t gold from 76m, including 4m running 8.55g/t gold and 24m grading 1.45g/t gold from 119m, including 4m going 3.61g/t gold.
The two new discoveries have prompted a re-think at Meeka and management has decided to defer St Annes’ initial mineral resource from next month to the March quarter next year.
Meeka Metals Managing Director, Tim Davidson said: “This will allow drill outs at the new zones of shallow oxide gold for inclusion in the Mineral Resource, providing a more meaningful picture of St Anne’s for inclusion in the Prefeasibility Study being released in mid-2023.”
However, the deferral has not affected the proposed update for the Turnberry mineral resource that currently stands at 11.3 million tonnes grading 1.7g/t for 610,000 ounces gold. Meeka says the update remains on track for next month.
Meeka changed its name in July from Meeka Gold to Meeka Metals and the company has attracted much interest this year for its discoveries of rare earths in the Great Southern that in turn prompted the name change.
Meeka also has a gold-rare earths project called Circle Valley, about 85km south of Norseman in the Albany-Fraser Mobile Belt. However, it’s the Murchison gold project that remains the company’s flagship and St Anne’s currently has two drill rigs targeting strike and depth extensions along the 7km gold-rich Fairway shear zone.
A PFS for the Murchison project has been flagged for the June quarter of next year and a definitive feasibility study by the end of 2023, meaning it could be a pivotal 12 months in the journey of Meeka Metals.
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