Gold miners are pumping more into drilling than ever before, and the metres heading into the ground are producing some stellar results.

A single massive drill result could be a one hit wonder and fleeting success, or it could become a timeless classic, pointing to the discovery of a major new gold field that makes a mine, company or even a region.

Mining data visualiser Miner Deck has collated its top 20 hits of 2021, converted into grams of gold per metre, and there are some doozies in the list.

These did not go unnoticed at the time by Stockhead’s resources team. Here were our takes on some of the best Eureka strikes.

 

ASTON MINERALS (ASX:ASO)

1m at 2035g/t on April 8 (2035g/m)

Tolga Kumova has described this explorer he chairs as a potential “life-changer”.

Here’s what Stockhead’s Bevis Yeo had to say about Miner Deck’s number one hit, which graded as high as 4060g/t over a 0.5m interval.

“Assays of a visible gold hit reported by Aston Minerals at its Edleston project last month has returned a bonanza grade of 4,060 grams per tonne (g/t).

“However, the subdued market response that this result elicited may be due to the fact that this grade was present only across a thin 0.5m interval that is located relatively deep in the hole at a depth of 362m.

“Not all is lost though.

“This intersection still works out to about 130oz of gold per tonne, meaning there’s still potentially more gold present at the hole compared to many other thicker, high-grade hits made elsewhere.

“It has also been proven to work at Kirkland Land Gold’s (ASX:KLG) Macassa Mine, where a thin 2m intercept grading an eye-popping 4,772g/t gold hit was made at an even deeper 1,615m.”

 

 

Aston Minerals share price today:

 

 

MUSGRAVE MINERALS (ASX:MGV)

15m at 111.6g/t on December 1 (1674g/m)

This ludicrous strike sent Musgrave shares flying on December 1, the latest of a string of high-grade results at Cue for the Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) backed gold explorer.

This is what Stockhead had to say when the result was announced.

“The success for Musgrave at its Cue project in WA’s Murchison continues, with drilling identifying new gold zones and returning more bonanza grades with a five-metre zone running 313.4g/t.

“Musgrave Minerals is unearthing multiple ‘Starlight’ lookalikes, with recent drilling at the Cue project revealing four potential new gold zones and one delivering an extremely high-grade and shallow gold hit.

“A new target about 80m south of the White Heat prospect intersected two new parallel lodes that returned a top hit of 15m at 111.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 25m, including 5m at 313.4g/t from 26m from hole 21MORC232.

“Investors welcomed the news, sending Musgrave shares up over 13% to an early trading high of 38c.”

 

 

Musgrave Minerals share price today:

 

 

NOVA MINERALS (ASX:NVA)

373m at 3.8g/t on October 11 (1417g/m)

Nova’s Estelle gold project in Alaska’s Tintina belt has emerged as one of the largest held by an ASX-listed junior.

After striking this outlandish hit of 373m at 3.8g/t, including 132m at 10.1g/t from 89m, the company went on to pump the Estelle resource from 4.7Moz to 9.6Moz in an update in December.

Here’s what deputy editor Reuben Adams thought of the strike back on October 11.

“Outrageous numbers. That must be up there as one of the gold hits of the year.”

Here’s what Nova boss Christopher Gerteisen told Adams a week later:

“People have thrown out all kinds of numbers — like it’s in the top 30 intercepts in the world ever; one person told me its top 10 in decades on the ASX.

“Either way, it is certainly world class.

“The thickness, the consistency and continuity of the grade, through those 130 metres is very impressive. And then it’s also right on the surface. Very happy with the result.

“I’m still waiting for results on hole three, four and six. At that stage, we’ll send all the data over to our resource estimation people and get a maiden resource out on RPM.

“I think it is going to be a ripper.

“By the size and shape of this thing we think this can be quite a large, large system.”

 

 

Nova Minerals share price today:

 

 

ODYSSEY GOLD (ASX:ODY)

2.3m at 600.2g/t on July 2 (1380g/m)

Not all big gold hits elicit a positive response from the market and Odyssey Gold’s Bottle Dump result came the same day the company pulled an SPP after its share price dropped well below the offer price.

Here was RM Corporate Finance’s Guy Le Page’s take on it for Stockhead.

“Odyssey Gold’s Christmas in July turned out to be a visit from the Christmas grinch instead, cancelling their SPP at 12.5 cents after raising $10 million at 12.5 cents early in June 2021.

“The stock dropped from around 12.5 cents to close at 10.5 cents on heavy volume of 26 million shares.

“Appears the market didn’t like the drilling results announced to ASX on 2 July 2021 which I thought was a little harsh given there appeared to be reasonable continuity between Gable and Bollard Prospects with encouraging intersections including TCKRC0040 with 6m @ 1.5g/t Au from 114m and 24m @ 1.1g/t Au from 132m.

“Better results from follow up drilling at Bottle Dump included 8m @ 1.9g/t gold (TCKRC0029 from 216m) which was a far cry from the 2.3m @ >600g/t gold but still a respectable result.”

 

 

Odyssey Gold share price today:

 

 

AFRICAN GOLD (ASX:A1G)

10m at 123g/t on September 8 (1230g/m)

Another Tolga pick. This intercept from the Didievi project in Cote D’Ivoire sent African Gold shares soaring by 80-odd per cent the day it was announced in September although they have settled back into a long-term trend since.

Here’s Reuben Adams again on the drilling results, which CEO and exploration manager Glen Edwards described as some of the best of his career.

“Outstanding.

“Historically, it hasn’t been recognised that a high-grade gold component existed at Didievi, however artisanal miners have been collecting free gold on the margins of the deposit, says A1G CEO Glen Edwards.

“‘The historical drilling was assayed by fire assay (the most common assay method) which picked up some very high grades,’ he says.

“As part of the QA/QC of our current drill program we ran screen fire assays over the higher-grade intervals.

“These screen fires returned some spectacular intercepts including some of the highest-grade intercepts I have drilled in my career.

“We are extremely excited about the prospectivity of this gold system and look forward to kicking off the next phase of drilling when I arrive back to the project later this month.’”

 

 

African Gold share price today:

 

Other miners who made the lists included Pantoro (ASX:PNR), which struck 8.7m at 83.27g/t at its Norseman JV on May 24,Mithril Resources (ASX:MTH), which hit 6.26m at 106g/t at the El Refugio mine in Mexico where it now boasts a 529,000oz resource at 6.81g/t, and Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMC), for a hit of 1.99m at 298.8g/t from its Wiluna gold mine on July 20.

Catalyst Metals (ASX:CYL) also made Miner Deck’s top 10 after striking 221g/t over 2.65m on June 22, while MetalsTech (ASX:MTC) reported a massive 38m at 17.72g/t from its Sturec project in the Czech Republic on October 7.

Notable results outside the top 10 included Predictive Discovery’s (ASX:PDI) find of 49.7m at 11.7g/t from its Bankan project in West Africa on September 23 and Navarre Minerals (ASX:NML), which delivered an early Chrissy present with a strike of 25m at 21.4g/t from the Crush Creek prospect at its newly acquired Mt Carlton gold mine in Queensland on December 20.

 

 

2021 drill hits share prices today:

 

At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Wiluna Mining Corporation and Navarre Minerals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

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