REZ delivers multiple shallow high-grade gold hits at Maranoa

REZ has uncovered very shallow and high-grade gold during drilling at its Maranoa prospect, which is shaping up as a promising near-term mining opportunity at East Menzies.

Resources & Energy Group (ASX:REZ) has returned multiple high grades of up to 33.75 grams per tonne (g/t) very close to surface at the Maranoa prospect.

Follow-up drilling has returned top hits of 3m at 5.06g/t, including 1m at 14.65g/t, from 22m; 5m at 7.95g/t from 3m, including 1m at 32.7g/t from 6m; and 7m at 3.2g/t, including 1m at 9g/t, from 19m.

Initial drilling of the new high-grade lode – located just 2.5km south of Granny Venn, where REZ is undertaking its fourth mining campaign, returned a peak hit of 1m at 33.75g/t from 37m back in January.

This provided REZ with enough confidence to follow up the initial four-hole program, by drilling an additional 21 holes along the projected strike of the main Maranoa lode.

The Maranoa prospect already has a mining licence and forms part of REZ’s strategy to identify and commercialise low capex development opportunities positioned along the western side of the East Menzies project area.

This could be REZ’s next mine after it has finished mining Granny Venn.

Maranoa currently has a JORC-compliant inferred resource of 46,000 tonnes at 5.7g/t for about 8,000 ounces of contained gold.

The prospect was mined between 1899 and 1942, producing 9,465 tonnes at a gold grade of 27g/t for 8,510 contained ounces.

Historical production records show very high grades from targets such as Sunday Gift (53.6g/t) Kensington (31.8g/t) and Maranoa (14.8g/t).

REZ said the development of additional shoots along the strike of these prospects or parallel to them is also likely. The company plans to undertake further resource drilling to investigate whether the shoots can be bulked together to support a larger scale of mining operations.

The Maranoa ore body extends over about 250-300m; however, the main historic workings are concentrated along the south end of the lode.

The northern extent of the lode appears to be above and outside the upper limit of historical workings, according to REZ, and was targeted to investigate this zone and its potential to host open pit mining.

The company’s goal now is to update the Maranoa resource to include the most recent results and to allow the assessment the open pit mining potential.

This article was developed in collaboration with Resources & Energy Group, 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.