Aurumin launches ambitious drilling campaign at Sandstone gold project

Aurumin (ASX: AUN) has commenced a first-pass reverse circulation drilling campaign at its wholly-owned Sandstone gold project, north of Perth.

The company plans to test up to nine new open pit targets with approximately 40 holes for a total of 4,000 metres of drilling.

The campaign will target multiple depositional models including porphyry/intrusive-hosted vein style, banded iron-hosted and structural shear style-hosted mineralisation in mafic and ultramafic units.

Multiple targets

The targets are Two Mile West, Shillington Footwall, Mt Klempt South, Mt Klempt North, Old Town Trend, Ridge North, Ridge West, Nugget Patch and Hatton.

All targets are on mining leases located within 3 kilometres of the processing plant footprint.

Managing director Brad Valiukas said the drilling campaign would align with the company’s focus on the Central Sandstone project by generating the critical mass required for future production.

Historic project

The Sandstone gold operations are the cornerstone development of the historic Central Sandstone project, which Aurumin acquired in early 2022.

Central Sandstone comprises an 881,300-ounce mineral resource, significant project infrastructure and an expanding tenement footprint where the company aims to support a gold mining operation in the future.

Last month, Aurumin attracted $2.5 million in a share placement which would remove a convertible note from its books and free up its finances to focus on Sandstone’s development.

High-grade tenement

In January, Aurumin added a strategic high-grade tenement to Sandstone.

The tenement contains the historic Queen of the Range, Welcome and Phoenix mines that were operational in the early 1900s and produced 197 tonnes of ore at 10.58 grams per tonne gold, 376t at 27.45g/t gold and 82t at 5.92g/t gold respectively.

At the time, Mr Valiukas said the company had been undertaking desktop studies, compiling and validating data for the project areas, including assessing data sourced from open file reports inherited as part of the Sandstone acquisition.

The company plans to extend mapping and surface sampling in the area.