Alderan Resources intersects gold in maiden drill hole at historic Drum mine
Alderan Resources estimates the Drum gold mine has potential for up to 67,000oz in remnant gold mineralisation plus down dip and along strike extensions.
Base metals explorer Alderan Resources (ASX: AL8) has hit gold in the first of a 10-hole drilling program at the historic Drum mine in western Utah.
The company intersected 6.3m at 2.9 grams per tonne gold from 65.9m and 1.5m at 5.6g/t gold from 70.7m within a broad gold mineralised interval of 16.2m at 1.04g/t gold from 60.2m.
The hole was designed to test for remnant gold mineralisation in the zone surrounding historic hole YC-16 on the western side of Drum’s East pit, which previously uncovered 56.4m at 1.8g/t gold from 44.2m in the Tatow unit.
Alderan’s modelling of historical drill data suggests up to 20m of the YC-16 intersection is remnant mineralisation below Drum’s pit bottom and includes sample grades up to 7.1g/t gold.
The company concluded from the grade of mineralisation and the length of the intersection that the first hole represents a “strong verification” of the mineralisation intersected in YC-16.
Gold-only assays
Alderan received gold-only assays for 20 samples from the first drill hole, ranging in length from 0.5m to 2.15m and depths of between 57m and 78.3m downhole.
The highest grade samples from these depths were 0.61m at 6.01g/t gold, 0.92m at 5.23g/t gold, and 1.13m at 3.4g/t gold.
Meanwhile, the mineralised intersections included 6.3m at 2.9g/t gold from 65.9m; 1.5m at 5.6g/t gold from 70.7m; and 16.15m at 1.04g/t gold from 60.04m which lies approximately 20m below the pit wall.
Excellent start
Alderan managing director Scott Caithness said the initial assays for the first hole were an “excellent start” to the company’s drilling campaign at Drum.
“This result, along with our in-pit rock samples which grade up to 10.7g/t gold, provides confidence in our modelling of exploration potential for remnant mineralisation and also in the grade of oxide mineralisation likely to be intersected in future drilling,” he said.
“Particularly exciting will be our planned drilling for mineralised extensions in previously unexplored areas to the north, south and down dip of the historically defined deposit.”
Mr Caithness said work would re-commence at Drum in March following a drill crew break and rig change.
Drilling will start with further verification holes followed by holes to extend the defined deposit.
Drum history
The Drum deposit was discovered in 1982 with an intercept of 15m grading 8.5g/t gold and was mined from the adjacent East and West pits from 1984.
Over its six-year life, the mine is reported to have produced 125,000 ounces of gold from 3.17 million tonnes of oxide ore grading 1.22g/t.
Towards the end of its life, a small underground operation was developed in the West pit and produced mined grades of more than 4g/t gold.