Nusantara defines maiden Measured gold resource at Awak Mas

Nusantara’s successful closed spaced diamond drilling has borne fruit in the form of a maiden Measured Resource for its Awak Mas deposit in Indonesia.

Measured Resources provide a high level of confidence in the geology, which is already sufficient to support mine planning.

While the definition of a 2.2Mt Measured Resource grading 1.58 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 110,000oz of contained gold is a positive all on its own, the diamond drilling has also upgraded the average grade of the Indicated Resource by 4 per cent to 36.5Mt at 1.41g/t gold.

The result places Nusantara Resources (ASX:NUS) on track to define a high confidence Resource over all initial mining areas that cover the first two years of production at the Awak Mas gold project.

“The close-spaced drilling at Awak Mas has been a great success – the high confidence Measured Resources de-risk early production and can be used to better define individual mining areas,” managing director Neil Whitaker said.

“We can proceed with conviction from the grade uplift we have seen in areas of greater data density, especially where there are potentially more high-grade feeder structures to identify.”

The company is currently waiting on the remaining assay results from the satellite Salu Bulo deposit before updating its current Resource.

nusantara resources awak mas pit resource gold — Plan view of Awak Mas designed pit showing resource model blocks colour coded by Resource category. Pic: Supplied

Awak Mas drilling

The closed spaced (15m by 15m) diamond drilling at the Awak Mas deposit was intended to infill the entire initial mining area (IMA), which covers the material scheduled for the first two years of mining production. In both areas covered by this drilling, the mineralisation tested is close to surface and requires little stripping or high wall development.

At Mapacing, the IMA covers the final pit design with drilling confirming that mineralisation is entirely shallow dipping with its distribution now far better constrained.

However, the IMA at the Tanjung area represents just the starter pit for a deeper and more extensive final pit design.

Drilling at Tanjung has detected a number of previously unknown high grade feeder zones that were missed by previous wide spaced drilling, as well as delineating internal waste zones that can be separately domained at a resolution suitable for designing ore dig blocks.

These zones are a source of potential future upside once further areas are infill drilled.

Future Activity

Once the company releases the update Resource estimate for Salu Bulo, it will combine it with the Awak Mas Resource to form the basis for an updated Ore Reserve estimate for the project.

This will in turn be used to develop an updated mine design and schedule.

Nusantara is also completing the interpretation of induced polarisation geophysics across several zones adjacent to the Awak Mas and Salu Bulo deposits.

Besides increasing its understanding of their geology, the survey is also expected to classify existing prospects as targets for future exploration drilling.

This article was developed in collaboration with Nusantara Resources, 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.