Ahead of a first phase of RC drilling, mineral explorer Aruma Resources has completed a heritage survey at the company’s Melrose gold project in WA’s Pilbara region. The survey kicks off its initial exploration campaign at the project’s Gossan Hill prospect, 5km north of the revered Paulsens gold mine near Pannawonica.
The explorer plans to drill up to 50 of the permitted 200 RC holes in its initial program, with drilling expected to reach depths of about 100m.
The drilling is designed to assess thick historical RC drill intercepts in a strong 50 parts per billion gold anomaly within a structural target at Gossan Hill.
The significant intercepts include 27m at 0.3 grams per tonne gold from the surface, 18m at 0.26 g/t from 63m and 11m at 0.42 g/t from 7m including 1m at 2.74 g/t from 14m.
The target zone is a contact running east to west that Aruma interprets as a structural and stratigraphic repetition of Paulsens.
The initial program seeks to gather information on rock types, mineralisation types, metallurgy, and stratigraphy in addition to the grade of gold and its controls.
Mobilisation to the site is planned for late next month.
Aruma Resources' Managing Director, Peter Schwann said:“The significant grades over wide intercepts in historic drilling at Gossan Hill are consistent with the wide carbonate halo around the richer sulphide cores of this type of gold deposit. This fits exactly with the Aruma Model and the style and host rocks at the rich mineralisation at Paulsens.”
ASX hero Northern Star Resources took the reins of Paulsens in 2010, successfully mining it until late 2017 and producing up to 100,000 ounces of gold per year.
In mid-June, the Australian gold mining goliath offloaded the revered mine to ASX-listed Black Cat Syndicate within a package deal for $44.5m.
The package included the remaining 231,000 ounces of gold from Paulsens plus another 493,000 ounces wrapped up in its Coyote resource — both mines were on care and maintenance at the time.
Northern Star began to relinquish parcels in the Paulsens region in 2017 after initial exploration.
Aruma applied for exploration permits in the region in May 2020 and was given the go-ahead last year.
Aruma believes most of the reported historical work over the prospective structures was performed at a spacing that left “windows of opportunity” for further gold mineralisation.
Currently the price of gold is hovering around US$1780 per ounce after dipping below US$1700 on July 20 last month.
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By Matt Birney
