Fledgling producer AuStar Gold (ASX:AUL) has intersected more visible gold at McNally’s Reef’ during redevelopment of the historic Morning Star mine in Victoria.

The underground Morning Star mine produced over 800,000oz at an average grade of 26.5g/t in the 1950s.

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AuStar is doing things differently; instead of proving up a resource beforehand, the company is mining and exploring at the same time.

This means there’s only enough gold inventory to sustain production for a few more months, AuStar says, but this will be replaced via the kind of exploration results released yesterday.

These include narrow high-grade intersections like 0.2m at 2540.11 grams per tonne (g/t) and 0.41m at 71.55g/t from McNally’s Reef. Here it is:

AuStar chief exec Tom de Vries says the company’s geological team continues to make timely discoveries with the aim of a confident reportable resource in the future.

“The results of these new high-grade drill-holes into the McNally’s Reef down dip of our current production area continue to show the ability of this deposit to throw up new and exciting results,” de Vries says.

“The latest intersection of 2540 grams is extremely encouraging and although narrow, in this style of mineralisation grade is always king.

“The next couple of holes will tell us more about the mining potential of this new area.”

In June, AuStar produced about 336oz of gold and 1.869kg of silver for total expected revenue of around $780,000. This was less than May, which saw the company pull in close to $1m.

 

In other ASX gold news today:

High-grade results have extended Breaker Resources’ (ASX:BRB) 1.1moz Bombora deposit at depth and along strike.

The most recent reconnaissance drilling returned results of up to 94.7g/t gold at depths of ~430m below surface. Modelling has now confirmed continuity of mineralisation over 3km, but Breaker chairman Tom Sanders says Bombora is still open in all directions after 226,000m of RC and diamond drilling.

The latest results will form part of the impending resource update, which is on track for release later this month. This new resource estimate will underpin the Lake Roe pre-feasibility study, which is scheduled for release in late September.

Black Cat Syndicate (ASX:BC8) is in a trading halt pending a resource update at its flagship Bulong project in WA.

Deepest-ever drilling at the Myhree system recently returned assays like 9m at 3g/t from 329m. This deeper drilling, plus shallower infill drilling, will drive the upcoming resource upgrade at Myhree, which has an inferred resource of 486,000t at 3.2g/t for 50,000oz of gold.