New Murchison Gold lifts Crown Prince grades ahead of proposed open pit development
A rejuvenated New Murchison Gold (ASX: NMG) has achieved high-grade gold results from control holes at the proposed open cut mine within its Crown Prince ore body in Western Australia.
In late April, the company appointed two highly accomplished professionals to its executive leadership team to help drive the Crown Prince open pit gold project towards development.
Derek Humphry brought 25 years of experience in the resources sector to his new role as chief financial officer, while New Murchison named experienced mining engineer Kim Gundersen general manager of operations.
Caprock resource
In the first results released following these appointments, New Murchison has successfully increased the grade and thickness of the caprock resource at Crown Prince.
The caprock resource now contains 40,873 tonnes at 1.41 grams per tonne of gold for 1,858 ounces, with results from the grade control program indicating that the mineable material in the caprock zone is likely to outperform earlier expectations.
New Murchison drilled 212 short vertical grade control holes to test and better delineate grade within the lateritic caprock above the Crown Prince ore bodies.
The company plans to incorporate these results into a new grade control model for the project before it starts mining the site.
Exceeded expectations
“We are pleased to report shallow high gold grades that far exceed our expectations in the caprock zone of the Crown Prince resource,” chief executive officer Alex Passmore said.
“We look forward to updating our resource model, grade control model and short-term mining plans given the high-grade nature of ore likely to be encountered early in the mine plan.”
The Crown Prince prospect is a high-grade gold deposit within New Murchison Gold’s Garden Gully project, located 22 kilometres north-west of Meekatharra.
High-grade gold
New Murchison announced in early April that an ore purchase agreement (OPA) for the Crown Prince deposit between its wholly owned subsidiary Zeus Mining and Westgold Resources (ASX: WGX) subsidiary Big Bell Gold had come into full effect.
Under the terms of the agreement, Westgold will buy 30,000 to 50,000 tonnes of gold ore per month from the Crown Prince deposit.
New Murchison originally planned to stockpile the caprock but, following these results, is now more likely to add the material to the next shipment it sends to Westgold under the OPA.