PFS paused as visible gold hits lead Meeka to ponder St Anne’s true scale

Pre-Feasibility Studies are a key step in the developmental pathway for resource projects, so just what would lead a company like Meeka to delay one? The answer is visible gold.

With drilling at St Anne’s continuing to deliver thick intersections of high-grade gold including 32m at 16.07 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a down-hole depth of 48m including 16m at 28.59g/t gold (22SAAC058), and the first RC drilling returning significant visible gold in the chips the Company made the decision to defer the PFS for its Murchison gold project in Western Australia.

While assays are still pending for the five RC holes and a further 38 aircore holes that it had drilled at the St Anne’s prospect, Meeka Metals (ASX:MEK) clearly believes that St Anne’s is much larger than originally believed.

With the strike of St Anne’s mineralisation now approximately 500m, and deeper drilling returning visible gold, things are looking good for the initial St Anne’s Mineral Resource that Meeka has pencilled in for release in December 2022.

Big gold resource potential

And there’s likely more to come.

Shallow aircore drilling is ongoing to the north of St Anne’s to determine just how far the high-grade zone continues while diamond drilling will begin in early October to test primary mineralisation below and along strike from 22SARC005.

Should the company continue its streak of good fortune, this is likely to deliver a robust maiden resource for St Anne’s sometime in the December 2022 quarter, which will in turn feed into a potentially more attractive PFS for release in the June 2023 quarter.

“The positive results from the ongoing drilling at St Anne’s gives us confidence this large gold system will continue to grow,” managing director Tim Davidson said.

“This is reinforced by early indications from RC drilling underway at St Anne’s that has intersected abundant visible gold at the target depth below previously reported shallow, high grade intersections in the oxide horizon.

“Given the shallow, high grade nature of mineralisation at St Anne’s and the potential for this to have a meaningful impact on the outcome of the Study, we have decided to defer the release of the Study.”

He added that releasing the PFS in mid-2023 will allow the company to optimise the impact of St Anne’s on its other mining centres and mill sizing.

Circle Valley exploration

St Anne’s may be taking up a fair bit of Meeka’s attention, but it certainly isn’t the only thing on its plate.

The company has kicked off a short diamond drilling program at the Circle Valley project near Esperance, WA, to follow-up on high-grade gold results returned for RC drilling in the first half of 2022.

This had returned some intriguing results such as 23m at 5.09g/t gold from 13m including 10m at 9.35g/t gold and 16m at 3.06g/t gold from 32m including 4m at 10.8g/t gold.

Not quite as sensational as St Anne’s but still very intriguing results for a project which is considered to be a doppelganger of the giant 7.1Moz Tropicana gold deposit located within the same Albany-Fraser Mobile Belt.

Results from the diamond drilling program will provide valuable information ahead of a larger drill program that is poised to start in January next year.

This article was developed in collaboration with Meeka Metals, 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.