The dust has settled and the rods have been pulled on Aurum Resources’ maiden 74-hole air-core (AC) drilling campaign at its Ryans Find gold project, north-east of Koolyanobbing in WA’s illustrious goldfields.
Drilling was designed to test the source of a suite of alluring gold and base metal anomalies etched out over a prospective – and under-explored – greenstone sequence.
All 74 holes were drilled successfully down to fresh rock and “blade refusal”, reaching management’s intended depth. A total of 2634m perforated the prospective greenstone, with samples composited in 4m intervals.
Aurum Resources chairman Troy Flannery said: “Aurum is very happy to have successfully completed our maiden drill program at Ryans Find, which is prospective for gold and base metals. The composite samples from air-core drilling have been delivered to Intertek, where the assay results are expected within the next six weeks.”
AC drilling is a handy first-pass method used to quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively assess the prospectivity of shallow exploration projects, without denting the exploration budget – a timely and wise technique to be used in an era of tight equity.
Ryans Find takes in about 237 square kilometres of tenure in the historical Mt Dimer gold mining hub along the Marda-Diemals greenstone belt. Aurum says its licence package contains more than 50km of strike length across a relatively unexplored greenstone belt close to historic gold mines and workings.
The area was the focus for nickel exploration by WMC Resources in the 1970s, but has remained largely dormant prior to the 2000s when nickel occurrences began to pop up, rekindling exploration efforts in the region.
A later phase of exploration by Aldoro Resources consisted of a first-pass soil geochemical survey aimed at identifying nickel-cobalt anomalies, which unwittingly unveiled the anomalous gold trends that have formed the basis for the current drilling program.
The project lies along strike and south-east from the mothballed Mt Dimer Tipan Pit that produced some 8500 ounces of gold grading 3.44 grams per tonne in the 1990s. A JORC-compliant resource of nearly 50,000 ounces of gold and about 90,000 ounces of silver has since been defined at Mt Dimer by its current owner, ASX-listed Everest Metals Corporation.
Under its former “Twenty Seven Co” moniker, Everest completed a 26-hole reverse-circulation (RC) drilling program at the mine in 2021, pulling up a string of high-grade gold and silver hits. Notable intercepts included 8m running at 13.55g/t gold from 80m, with a 4m core averaging 23g/t and 6m at 7.07g/t and 6.93 g/t silver from just 45m.
Aurum’s ground surrounds the lease and is on the structural trend where the Mt Dimer resource remains open along strike to the south and down dip.
As the lab beavers away analysing the company’s swag of samples, it is only a matter of time before it can take stock of its exploration efforts. With a high-grade gold deposit just over the fence and only scant drilling in the area previously, a little smoke might just ignite.
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By Helen Barling
