Explaurum digs into shallow gold at Mace shoring up WA’s new gold district
Explaurum has identified supergene-style gold mineralisation along 550m of strike within the Mace prospect, which is part of the Tampia gold project in WA’s wheatbelt.
Explaurum (ASX: EXU) has dug into shallow gold mineralisation at the Mace prospect, part of the company’s flagship Tampia gold project located in a potential new gold district in Western Australia’s wheatbelt.
Drilling has identified supergene-style gold mineralisation at 8m below surface over more than 550m of strike, with mineralisation open to the west and close to project’s primary Tampia deposit.
Notable intersections from drilling were 11m grading 13.90 grams per tonne gold from 7m, 8m at 10.03g/t gold from 10m, and 3m at 5.26g/t gold from 2m.
According to Explaurum, the mean grade was 5.17g/t gold with the drill sections averaging about 5m in thickness.
“The results from drilling the supergene gold mineralisation at the Mace prospect have so far exceeded expectations, both in grade and potential to hold significant resource ounces, and confirmed this new style of shallow mineralisation is continuous for at least 550m from where the gold mineralisation outcrops in the Tampia pit area,” Explaurum managing director John Lawton said.
“The gold soil anomaly over the creek extends 13km to the west of the Tampia resource area suggesting that there is excellent potential to add to the current resource from this highly lucrative style of gold mineralisation,” Mr Lawton added.
Additionally, four diamond drill holes for 618m were finished across Gravity Anomaly 8, with core of interest sent for analysis and results anticipated in August.
Mr Lawton said that “aggressive” exploration would be undertaken throughout the remainder of the year and will target high priority soil and gravity anomalies at Mace and Gravity Anomaly 8.
A total of 86 holes for 3,091 is scheduled to be completed at Mace in the next four weeks, with drilling then to move on to Gravity Anomaly 8.
Tampia gold project
Located about 240km east of Perth, Explaurum claims Tampia lies in an underexplored gold region, with the wheatbelt traditionally hosting agricultural operations.
The project has a resource of 11.7 million tonnes grading 1.79g/t gold for 675,000oz of the precious metal. Additionally, a reserve estimate of 485,000oz of contained gold has been calculated.
A prefeasibility study was released in May that projected an initial five-year mine life for EBITDA of A$327 million and a 1.5-year payback period, based on a production target of 534,000oz of gold.
Capital expenditure is estimated at A$119 million to develop an open pit and conventional 1.5Mtpa processing operation.
A bankable feasibility study is due to wind up in October, with project construction pencilled in if for late 2018 and production to begin by the end of 2019.
The project is 14km from Narembeen with critical infrastructure and services nearby.
“This is going to be a defining six months for Explaurum. We look forward to identifying a Tampia lookalike which the early stages of our exploration effort suggest may exist in the area,” Mr Lawton said.
By early afternoon trade, Explaurum’s share price was up 2.47% to A$0.083.