OzAurum starts drilling to expand Cross Fault gold find, metallurgical testing

• OzAurum begins drilling at Mulgabbie North to expand Cross Fault discovery towards JORC resource
• Previous drilling returned 48m grading 1.66g/t gold including high-grade sections up to 22.58g/t
• Company also progressing heap leach metallurgical testing with drilling to recover fresh material

Special Report: OzAurum has started drilling at Mulgabbie North gold project in WA’s Eastern Goldfields in a bid to expand high-grade zones at the Cross Fault discovery.

Previous drilling at Cross Fault returned standout results such as 48m grading 1.66g/t Au from surface to the end of hole including 9m at 5.79g/t from 12m (MNORC 221) and 12m at 4.26g/t from 18m including 2m at 22.58g/t (MNORC 220).

It also outlined gold mineralisation over a strike length of about 400m.

OzAurum Resources’ (ASX:OZM) drilling at Cross Fault is aimed at expanding mineralisation at depth and along strike, and advancing the discovery towards a JORC resource.

The company is also drilling holes at the James and Ben prospects to secure fresh material for ongoing metallurgical testwork to support feasibility study inputs and future mine design.

“We’re extremely pleased with the strong progress being made across all fronts at Mulgabbie North,” managing director Andrew Pumphrey said.

“The commencement of RC drilling at the Cross Fault discovery, together with additional metallurgical holes at the James and Ben prospects, represents another important step toward defining a JORC-compliant resource and advancing our feasibility studies.”

Heap leach testing

In testwork, OZM has completed a further 55 percolation test columns, taking the total number of completed tests in one month to 92.

“This level of momentum gives us a clear technical foundation to optimise heap leach recoveries and de-risk future operations,” Pumphrey noted.

All tests completed to date have been on the James prospect through different sections of the regolith profile, at varying cement and lime dosages.

An update will be provided once Kappes Cassiday & Associates Australia have reviewed  results.

Hydraulic conductivity is a critical aspect of a successful heap leach operation and the KCAA percolation test is the industry benchmark used to determine this.

Previous intermittent bottle roll testwork achieved 88.9% gold recovery from James transition samples crushed to minus 6mm and 87.5% from samples crushed to minus 12.5mm.

The next batch of percolation testwork will be on the Ben prospect and the new discovery area where there’s extensive oxide and transition gold mineralisation.

“In parallel, we’re advancing permitting with environmental consultants now engaged to accelerate approvals for a potential heap leach operation on granted Mining Lease M28/240,” Pumphrey added.

This article was developed in collaboration with OzAurum 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.