Meteoric Resources’ (ASX: MEI) has continued to intersect high-grade gold at its wholly-owned Juruena project in Brazil, with the drilling program also uncovering a thick zone of gold-copper mineralisation at the Crentes prospect.
Latest assays from Juruena have unearthed 1.2m at 45.83 grams per tonne gold from 248.9m in drill hole JUDD009 at the high-grade Dona Maria deposit, which has an existing resource of 88,000 contained ounces of gold with an average grade of 12.7g/t.
Meteoric managing director Andrew Tunks said drill hole JUDD009 had also confirmed high-grade gold mineralisation at Dona Maria is open at depth – which is in line with the company’s structural model.
“This hole intersected high-grade gold at the base of the current resource, deeper than any historic drilling and has allowed us to plan follow-up deep drilling that, if successful, could significantly increase this resource,” he added.
Meanwhile, drilling at Crentes, which is adjacent to Dona Maria has unearthed a thick zone of porphyry-style copper gold mineralisation.
At Crentes, initial assays were 54.3m at 1.33g/t gold and 0.23% copper from 171m, including 12m at 4.54g/t gold and 0.25% copper from 178.5m.
Meteoric has interpreted the copper discovery as part of a larger gold-rich copper porphyry system.
Dr Tunks said finding the copper mineralisation was “incredibly exciting”.
He added the discovery opened a “new and exciting” exploration opportunity for Meteoric.
“The geology team are working hard to understand the real potential of this gold-copper mineralisation before planning further drilling, with the high-grade gold lodes remaining the focus of drilling for the completion of this program at Juruena,” he said.
To-date, 19 diamond drill holes have been completed at Juruena for 3,431m, which is part of a 4,000m program.
Assays from seven holes are pending and are expected to be available next month.
Novo Astro gold project
Concurrent to exploration at Juruena, drilling is also underway at the less advanced nearby Novo Astro gold project.
According to Meteoric, one of the diamond rigs will be transported from Juruena to Novo Astro to fast-track exploration at the greenfields project.
Meteoric’s theory is that Novo Astro hosts similar-style mineralisation to Juruena.
The program at Novo Astro will comprise 21-holes for 2,500m as well as geophysical exploration. The initial target is the Jose prospect where rock chips assayed above 200g/t gold.
