Two Aussie gold players have dug up “bonanza” grades of gold at mines in Western Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Producer Silver Lake Resources (ASX:SLR) reported a hit of 526 grams per tonne (g/t), albeit from a short intercept of just 0.45m, from drilling at a prospect called “Easter Hollows” in Western Australia.

The grade would definitely be labelled “bonanza” – a term used by miners to describe gold well above the 5g/t level considered high-grade.

Shares rose 4 per cent to an intra-day peak of 51c on Friday morning.

The area is part of the company’s larger producing Mount Monger project located in the Eastern Goldfields.

Drilling by Silver Lake at Easter Hollows delivered a series of high-grade hits including 0.45m at 43.4g/t, 1.64m at 18.7g/t and 1.1m at 16g/t.

Silver Lake says high grades now continue over a distance of 450m.

“Easter Hollows continues to deliver high grade intersections consistent with Daisy style mineralisation that confirm our belief we have identified a significant new lode system immediately to the west of the prolific Haoma West lodes,” managing director Luke Tonkin said.

“We will continue to drill the Easter Hollows lodes to understand the extent of the system and the optimal development strategy to introduce Easter Hollows into our future mine planning.”

The Daisy Complex – one of the underground mines within the Mount Monger operation – has produced over 720,000 ounces of gold since 2008.

Meanwhile, minnow Niuminco (ASX:NIU) has struck high grades of up to 83.3g/t from a new vein called “Edie Creek” in Papua New Guinea.

The share price doubled to 0.2c after Niuminco announced the “bonanza grades”.

Niuminco (ASX:NIU) shares over the past year.
Niuminco (ASX:NIU) shares over the past year.

The explorer was given a hint there was something there after illegal miners flocked to the site 80m to the southwest of and parallel to the Edie Creek vein.

Niuminco’s team then moved to bulk-sample the vein after exposing it further both along and down strike.

“This vein, which appears to be one of a series of parallel veins, further indicates the historical evidence of increasing grade in the Edie Creek systems as you move deeper down towards bedrock,” managing director Tracey Lake said.

Over three days, 2.6 tonnes of the vein material produced 7 ounces of gold and 6.1 ounces of silver.