Pic: John W Banagan / Stone via Getty Images
Auric Mining is revving up the drill rigs at its Widgiemooltha gold project
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Auric Mining is due to begin a new round of reverse circulation drilling at the Widgiemooltha gold project this month, looking to beef up its main Munda deposit and target its promising new Guest prospect.
The 28 hole, 3100m campaign marks newly-listed Auric Mining’s (ASX:AWJ) return to Munda after an initial drilling campaign in March which included a Rockstar intercept of 13m at 14.62g/t from 60m depth, which included 1m at 137.4g/t from 65m.
The project already boasts an inferred resource of 173,700oz at 1.43g/t of gold, and has been looked at closely since the 1960s by Western Mining Corporation and Resolute Mining, which mined a small trial pit in 1999.
Auric’s recent drilling indicates there remains plenty of high quality material to be found, with the shallow nature of the gold also appearing to be amenable to open pit mining.
The new program will be undertaken over a 25 by 25m drill spacing – dense enough to back up resource estimation, as well as testing a new mineralised zone 200m north-east of the Munda resource with a previous RC results of 19m @ 0.72g/t Au from 26m, including 6m @ 1.74g/t Au from 39m.
Intriguingly, four RC holes drilled by WMC — which discovered the rich St Ives gold mine along with a host of major nickel deposits in the region — will also be twinned as part of efforts to validate and convert inferred resources at Munda into the higher confidence indicated category.
Guest inviting for early testing
The restart of drilling at Widgie comes after a major period of corporate consolidation, with Auric sealing the ‘transformational’ acquisition of gold rights on 21 tenements held by nickel and lithium play Neometals.
That deal has delivered a five-fold boost in land position for Auric, with the Guest prospect the first target from that pick-up to be put to the test by the drill bit.
It has plenty of Goldfields charm, with a number of historic shafts and fascinating results from historic drilling programs for Auric’s geologists to follow up.
Consolidated Kalgoorlie Gold Mines tested the Guest prospect in 1984, a halcyon era for gold discovery in WA, completing 17 percussion holes for 690m.
More recently Ramelius Resources, at the time the owner of the high grade Wattle Dam gold mine nearby, drilled 61 RC holes for 2056m in 2006.
But drilling never got deeper than 80m, with CKGM and Ramelius only testing the soil beneath to an average depth of 41m and 34m respectively, despite CKGM recording 8m at 2.91g/t and 2m at 3.41g/t in the shallow weathered profile.
The geometry of the mineralisation is uncertain but interpreted to dip to the northeast.
Auric will be testing for higher grades in the deeper fresh rock at 80-120m below surface in a 9 hole, 830m RC program.
Drilling will begin through contractor K-Drill Pty Ltd on July 19.
This article was developed in collaboration with Auric Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
