Greentech Metals reviews Whundo project for gold upside and near-term production potential

Greentech Metals (ASX: GRE) is reviewing its Whundo copper project in Western Australia to identify the potential for value-adding gold and near-term viable copper-gold-zinc production.

The company is analysing more than 50,000 historic assays from over 1,195 drill holes to investigate the grade of gold associated with the current mineral resource estimate of 6.2 million tonnes at 1.12% copper and 1.04% zinc.

It has so far demonstrated a “significant and consistent association” of gold with copper within all of the mineralised shoots across the acreage.

Increasing prices

Executive director Tom Reddicliffe said the company had initiated the Whundo review on the back of increasing commodity prices.

“This is a consequence of an almost doubling of the gold price in the last 12 months, where 1 gram per tonne of in-situ gold is now approximately equivalent to 1% in-situ copper metal per tonne,” he said.

“This has given the Whundo project additional impetus and we have engaged a consultant to review various mining and processing scenarios with a view to assessing the viability for near-term production.”

Mr Reddicliffe said the occurrence of gold was consistently associated with copper within all of the mineralised shoots at Whundo and rising prices could considerably enhance the project’s value.

High-grade assays

The Whundo review has so far identified high-grade individual drill sample assays of up to 64.7 grams per tonne gold as well as composited drill intercepts up to 18.4 metres reporting over 1g/t gold.

Significant individual gold assays and intercepts from the Austin, Shelby and Ayshia mineralised shoots included 1m at 64.7g/t gold from 47m and 1m at 12.75g/t gold from 23m, along with 5m at 1.12g/t gold, 3.9% copper and 2% zinc from 56m.

Best assays at Ayshia were 10m at 1.8g/t gold, 3.44% copper and 3.5% zinc from 35m including 3m at 3.3g/t gold, 3.6% copper and 1% zinc from 41m, as well as 4.3m at 1.8g/t gold, 1.82% copper and 14.1% zinc from 39.6m including 1.7m at 3g/t gold, 2.5% copper and 7.2% zinc from 41.2m.

Mr Reddicliffe said Greentech would incorporate the gold assays into a re-estimation of the Whundo resource estimate to evaluate the potential economic enhancements and viability for near-term production.