Saturn Metals Hits Promising Gold Intersections at Apollo Hill Heap Leach Project in WA

Saturn Metals (ASX: STN) has received positive assays highlighting new thick intersections that open the door for further expansion of its Apollo Hill heap leach gold project near Leonora in Western Australia.

The results come from recent drilling that covered a gold cluster across an 800-metre section of one of Apollo Hill’s footwall geological structures at the Iris and Tefnut zones.

New high-grade, thick and relatively shallow reverse circulation (RC) gold results include 5m at 15.08 grams per tonne from 51m within 21m at 3.92g/t from 36m and 8m at 5.56g/t from 70m within 23m at 2.55g/t from 56m.

Updated Apollo MRE

The promising new returns come less than a month after Saturn released an updated measured, indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate (MRE) for Apollo of 137.1Mt at 0.51g/t for 2,239,000 ounces of gold within a constraining pit shell.

That update followed completion of a 300-hole program of mostly infill drilling at the 100%-owned project.

The new MRE featured a 59% increase in the combined higher confidence measured and indicated mineral resource classification to 1.84Moz, along with a 10% increase on the previous 2.03Moz total mineral resource.

The company’s upcoming drilling program will contribute towards a future mineral resource update Saturn has planned for release in the first half of 2026.

‘Coherent High-Grade Zones’

Managing director Ian Bamborough said the latest drilling had identified an exploration opportunity within the greater Apollo Hill gold system with significant new intercepts returned at the higher-grade ‘Iris zone’, and at the ‘Tefnut zone’ 300m along strike.

“These exciting new results confirm our belief that coherent high-grade zones like Iris have the potential to repeat throughout the greater Apollo Hill gold system,” Mr Bamborough said.

“This, together with the geological learnings we have gained from our recent drilling, gives us confidence to continue exploring Apollo Hill for new opportunities, [and] drilling will target more of these recently identified structures in the coming months.”

Metallurgical Study Success

Saturn has also enjoyed some recent metallurgical study success at Apollo Hill, with the company achieving excellent returns from six column leach tests it completed during the June quarter.

The average 86% gold recovery Saturn achieved in 95 days from near-surface oxide and transitional samples compares well to global heap leach benchmarks.

Saturn believes the strong gold recoveries it achieved from the oxide and transitional materials typically extracted in the early stages of open-pit mining offers the potential to enhance the project’s economics.

Following the successful completion of its $23 million placement and oversubscribed share purchase plan during the period, Saturn’s cash position at the end of the quarter stood at $27.18m.