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Rumble Resources Reports 29% Increase in Gold Resource Estimate at Western Queen Project

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Rumble Resources ASX RTR Increase Gold Resource Estimate Western Queen Project
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Rumble Resources (ASX: RTR) has announced a significant increase to the mineral resource estimate at its historical Western Queen gold project in Western Australia.

Based on an additional 8,205 metres of reverse circulation drilling and 2,453m of diamond work in November and March, the new resource sits at 3.72 million tonnes grading 3.1 grams per tonne gold for 370,000 ounces, representing a 29% increase in global ounces and a 53% increase global resource head grade.

Drilling, which focused on targeting new and extended high-grade mineralised positions at the Western Queen South and Princess deposits, led to a 75% increase in inferred resources to 2.4Mt at 2.8g/t gold for 217,800oz.

Western Queen South

The strongest upgrade was recorded at Western Queen South where a revised estimate of 2.32Mt at 2.66g/t gold for 198,900oz represented a 59% increase in the deposit’s overall ounce position.

Managing director Peter Harold said Western Queen remains open along strike and at depth, and that additional drilling could mean further growth for gold resources.

“The re-interpretation work to look at an underground mining option as well as the inclusion of intersections from the last two drilling programs has made a big difference to the reported grade and contained gold,” Mr Harold said.

Rumble will now compare the economics of the proposed open-pit project against the potential returns from an underground operation.

Converting Resources

The company expects further drilling at Western Queen to extend the project’s high-grade mineralisation at depth and convert a significant portion of the new inferred resource to the higher-confidence indicated category.

Rumble has submitted a heritage survey request for proposed aircore and reverse circulation work across the acreage and plans to complete the campaign early in the new year.

The Western Queen project is located within a 200 kilometre radius of five gold processing mills, the closest being Spartan Resources’ (ASX: SPR) Dalgaranga, which has a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum.

Historical mining at the Western Queen deposits produced 880,000t at 7.6g/t for 215,000oz gold.