Mineral explorer Aurumin has intersected visible gold in its first diamond drill hole at the company’s 784,000-ounce Central Sandstone gold project 130km west of Leinster in Western Australia. With the RC portion of its program completed, the diamond drilling aims to extend and better define the project’s premier underground resource, Two Mile Hill, of 14.2 million tonnes grading 1.1 grams per tonne gold and containing 500,000 ounces of gold.
The maiden diamond drill hole was plunged to 562m and hit Aurumin’s intrusive rock target, a tonalite, with multiple instances of visible gold logged.
The tonalite was intercepted 20m earlier than modelled, giving confidence to the company’s working interpretations.
The gold was observed towards the end of the hole, supporting the possibility mineralisation remains open below the base of the existing underground resource,
Aurumin’s gold-bearing core is now being processed on-site in preparation for testing. All samples from the RC portion of the program are awaiting assay at a laboratory.
The explorer has also received results from its 467-hole auger program that kicked off in April, designed to follow up from earlier infill and extension auger work last year.
The findings have increased information resolution across six previously confirmed targets and lit up five more. The increased resolution and information will potentially be used to firm up the prospects into further drill priorities.
Aurumin Managing Director, Brad Valiukas said: “We have a two-pronged approach that is progressing well at Sandstone. The first part is to make the most of the 500,000-ounce Two Mile Hill Resource. The second part is to make the most out of the tenement package that we have at Sandstone. The auger program is part of that, exploring for new deposits just a couple of kilometres from existing infrastructure.”
The new targets yielded gold grades up to 1860 parts per billion and will be assessed further in the explorer’s next stage of work. With the geochemical anomalies now on the map, Aurumin’s latest targets look curiously similar to its defined prospects and deposits.
Whilst Aurumin is excited by its five new leads there are still further areas to be investigated with another program.
The resource at the Central Sandstone project is spread out over 11 deposits, with the largest contributing component being the underground Two Mile Hill resource of 500,000 ounces.
Historically, Troy Resources had produced 508,000 ounces of gold across the region, with the previous production on Aurumin’s tenements bringing 1.2Mt at 2.1 g/t gold for 78,000 ounces.
Ultimately, Aurumin is working to transform its previously operating gold project back into gear, once its gold resource reaches critical mass.
The project’s previous owner, Middle Island Resources, determined in a scoping study the operation could be particularly attractive if the 500,000-tonne per annum processing plant were upgraded to 750,000tpa and additional mill feed was secured.
Interestingly, the broader region’s defined gold inventory totals almost six million ounces, with no prominent producer.
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