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Plenty of blue sky at Big Sky as Musgrave hits more near-surface, high-grade gold
Mining
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The Cue gold project is the gift that just keeps on giving for Musgrave, with infill drilling at the Big Sky deposit delivering more near-surface, high-grade gold above the current resource grade and extensional drilling uncovering even more new zones of mineralisation outside of the current resource.
Musgrave Minerals’ (ASX:MGV) Cue gold project continues to reveal its abundant riches, with drilling delivering more strong near-surface, high-grade gold as well as identifying new gold zones.
A significant proportion of the infill drill holes returned intersections above the current resource grade, with top hits including 5m at 13.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 53m, 8m at 5.9g/t from 22m, and 4m at 9.5g/t from 31m.
Meanwhile, extensional drilling intercepts like 15m at 3.3g/t from 28m, including 4m at 7.6g/t from 32m; 11m at 3g/t, including 4m at 6.9g/t, from 3m; 2m at 4.9g/t from 12m, and 1m at 11.2g/t from 68m proves there is still plenty of blue-sky exploration potential outside of the existing resource.
The Cue resource currently sits not far of the 1-million-ounce mark at 12.3 million tonnes at 2.3g/t for 927,000oz of contained gold.
But since Musgrave delivered a resource upgrade in late May, beating analysts’ predictions, drilling has continued to throw up still more near-surface, high-grade gold and extend the mineralisation further, which bodes well for an increase in the resource.
“The latest assay results from infill and extensional resource drilling at Big Sky continue to improve the confidence in the continuity of the deposit,” managing director Rob Waugh said.
“Both infill and extensional holes were successful. Within the strongly mineralised zones the majority of these new drill holes host mineralised intervals above the current mineral resource grade of the deposit.
“This drilling has focused on the top 80m of select zones at Big Sky with the aim to convert a significant portion of the near-surface mineralisation to the greater confidence indicated resource category aligned with our next mineral resource update scheduled for Q2 2023.”
The focus of recent drilling is to not only grow the resource but also de-risk the near-surface gold mineralisation, which is amenable to open pit mining, at Big Sky.
This is part of Musgrave’s plan to deliver a stage one pre-feasibility study in the first quarter of 2023, focusing on the technical and financial viability of the early years of the Cue project.
The Big Sky deposit sits just 2km southwest of the Break of Day Trend, which is one of the highest-grade structures in Australia with a resource of 982,000 tonnes at 10.4g/t for 327,000oz of contained gold.
Musgrave has now begun follow-up drilling at the Waratah, Amarillo, and East Numbers targets.
Metallurgical test work on the Big Sky and White Heat-Mosaic deposits is also underway, with preliminary gold recovery data expected in December.
This article was developed in collaboration with Musgrave Minerals, 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.
