Thick, shallow gold hits point to an open pit with low strip ratios at Jugan. Pic: via Getty Images
Besra’s 58m @ 2.7 g/t gold hit from Surface in Sarawak have all the hallmarks of a low-cost, open pit bonanza
Mining
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Besra’s maiden diamond drill program at its Bau gold project in Malaysia’s Sarawak, is delivering the perfect potential for a lower-cost open pit project.
Initial assays from the first four of 13 diamond holes have returned thicker and more consistent mineralisation than anything indicated by historical drilling within the Jugan project area.
Notable results include 58m grading 2.67 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from surface and 26m at 2.23g/t gold from surface.
Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ) chief executive officer Dr Ray Shaw told Stockhead, the intercepted grades are higher than the current Jugan resources.
And that resource was already exciting analysts – consisting of a higher-confidence Measured and Indicated resource of 870,000oz at a grade of 1.5g/t gold and an Inferred resource of 90,000oz at 1.6g/t gold.
Assays are now pending for the next seven holes while another two holes are being drilled.
“The drilling results have so far encountered substantially thicker and more consistent mineralisation than indicated by historical drilling, across the southwestern flank and crest of the topographic Jugan Hill,” Dr Shaw said.
“As with historical drilling, these thicknesses also have higher grades compared to the Jugan Resource estimates.
“This is very promising for Jugan because mineralisation extends from the surface suggesting any future potential mining operation may have low strip ratios.”
A 15km system of gold endowment
Besra drilled 13 holes totalling about 1,500m to provide additional sub-surface control particularly across the crest and southwestern flank of Jugan Hill.
This is aimed at infilling historical drillhole control to better define lateral continuity and grade in an area of shallow to outcropping mineralisation.
Three of the first four holes JUDHH-83, 84 and 85 confirmed the lateral continuity of the Jugan mineralised body between gaps in the historical drilling across the southwestern flank of Jugan Hill.
Meanwhile, the mineralisation outcrop geometry and the absence of gold mineralisation in JUDDH-82 confirm that the mineralisation is terminated towards the southwestern boundary of ML 140 by a fault.
Jugan is part of the broader Bau project that is defined by a system of gold endowment extending within an eight km by 15 km corridor, centred on the township of Bau.
This hosts a total resource of 72.6Mt grading 1.4g/t for 3.3Moz of contained gold.
Other work
The Environmental Impact Assessment for Jugan is currently being undertaken by a Sarawak based firm of consultants and is anticipated to be completed during the second quarter of 2022.
This process of evaluating the likely environmental impacts associated with a future development proposal will be discussed with the Natural Resources and Environment Board of Sarawak and Malaysia’s relevant agencies.
This article was developed in collaboration with Besra Gold, 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.
