Anglo Australian Resources has tabled an impressive 33 per cent increase in the mineral resource estimate for its flagship Mandilla gold project in WA. Mandilla now boasts a JORC resource of 19.8 million tonnes at 1.0 gram per tonne gold for 664,600 ounces of contained gold. The company already has the rods turning again as it embarks on the next massive 55,000m drilling blitz.
Since delivering its maiden 500,000-ounce mineral resource in May, Anglo Australian has punched out 7,700m of drilling and last month reported a swag of stellar gold hits. The headline drill hole at Mandilla East was 64.57m at 3.49 g/t gold and contained intervals of visible gold and eye-popping bonanza-grade veins including 0.44m grading 127.61 g/t and 0.7m going 143.56 g/t.
The latest assay results have been included in the updated mineral resource which was prepared by Cube Consulting and with a 33 per cent hike, the new resource estimate hasn’t disappointed.
A geotechnical review leading to a steepening of inter-ramp angles within the optimised pit design also contributed to an increase in the mineral resource.
Anglo Australian Resources Managing Director, Marc Ducler said: “Achieving a 33 per cent increase in the Mandilla resource so quickly is a fantastic result. We have added 164,000 ounces by including assays from just 7,700m of RC and diamond drilling, which represents an outstanding return on our investment and bodes extremely well for further growth.”
The Mandilla mineral resource estimate is constrained within pit shells, uses a gold price of A$2,500 per ounce and was estimated using a 0.39 g/t gold cut-off. Of the total mineral resource estimate, 9.4Mt grading 1.1 g/t for 324,100 ounces of gold are in the indicated category, which represents a 36 per cent increase in this category.
The successful extensional and infill drilling at Mandilla East increased the mineralisation envelope by 150m to the south and 250m to the south-east. The mineral resource now covers a total strike length of 2.5km. Importantly, mineralisation remains open in a number of directions, including beneath the pits that produced 20,573 ounces of gold from the Mandilla West paleochannels some years ago.
The company’s whopping 55,000m drill campaign across the Mandilla and Feysville gold projects will start punching out the RC metres at Mandilla this week. Diamond drilling is set to commence in the September quarter and an aircore rig will kick off in the December quarter.
The Feysville gold project is 14km south of Kalgoorlie on the eastern flank of the famed Boulder-Lefroy fault. The mineral resource estimate there stands at 2.9Mt at 1.3 g/t gold for 116,100 ounces of contained gold, as announced by Anglo back in 2019. The company has since been quietly building a swag of targets from geophysical structural interpretations and has recently lodged an application for a mining lease at Feysville.
Anglo Australian’s resource position has it pondering a range of exploration opportunities whilst it waits for a considerable number of drill results. The cornerstone Mandilla East and Mandilla South deposits remain open in multiple directions and with the substantial 55,000m drill program ongoing, the company is charging ahead as it attempts to join the exclusive million-ounce club.
Mr Ducler said: “We are genuinely encouraged by the opportunities that exist to grow the known deposits both along strike and at depth and to make new discoveries within the broader mineralised trend.”
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By Matt Birney
