Aurumin looks to add WA iron ore to million gold ounces

Aurumin is preparing to launch into a drilling campaign to expand its gold inventory and potentially find economic iron mineralisation at its range of projects around Western Australia’s historic Mid West town of Sandstone, about 520km north-east of Perth.

The company has a 946,000-ounce gold resource at the three projects within its operations and recently retrieved 320 pulp samples to be assayed for the iron it identified from rock-chip sampling.

Management says it has launched site-works to prepare for its upcoming drill program where it plans to follow up a stellar hit of 18m at 25.8 grams per tonne gold at Plum Pudding, as it looks to extend the potential for a resource at the prospect. It is also planning a second round of drilling at the gold targets within its mining lease, including Mt Klempt South, Two Mile Hill West and Old Town Trend.

A first-stage program is planned for Birrigrin, Dandaraga and additional prospects across its exploration tenement. Management notes all approvals to begin the reverse-circulation (RC) drill program are in place.

Aurumin’s flagship project is the Central Sandstone site that boasts an 881,300 gold resource, with open-pittable material comprising 7.622 million tonnes at 1.3g/t gold for 307,400 ounces.

Additionally, its underground resource at the project consists of 18.45 million tonnes grading 1.5g/t gold for 573,900 ounces. The average grade across the project is 1.5g/t.

Aurumin managing director Brad Valiukas said: “We remain focussed on generating the critical mass required for future production at our Sandstone Operations, targeting additional open pit material to support an operational restart. This next round of drilling will look to expand the existing gold Resource at Plum Pudding, flesh-out some of the confirmed new gold targets on the mining leases and step further afield to the Birrigrin Project and Dandaraga prospect to target some potential higher-grade sweeteners.”

Valiukas also went on to say that drill samples from the site have never been assayed for iron and that 19 were selected for testing the iron-ore potential. Management believes Central Sandstone is also prospective for direct shipping ore (DSO) iron ore material, after recent rock-chip sampling.

A peak return of 67 per cent iron from the chips and the identification of banded-iron outcrops, potentially 5m to 40m wide, across a non-continuous 6km strike of banded-iron material at surface is providing it with the confidence that there may be economic DSO material contained within its ground. An economic iron-ore deposit would provide a game-changing outcome for the value of the project.

Aurumin is eagerly now awaiting results for the pulp samples submitted for iron and multi-element assays to be returned. It plans to evaluate historical drilling near its iron ore targets for possible additions to the list.

The company’s geophysical consultants have re-processed and interpreted historic datasets, providing improved visuals for the iron beds and assisting with further targeting of gold and iron ore mineralisation.

Once all of the sample assays are returned, Aurumin plans to fine-tune its iron ore targets and leap into the new drilling campaign.

Management has plans to soon burst through the million-ounce gold resource at its Sandstone operations and to develop a viable DSO iron ore deposit and it will be looking to this campaign to set it on that path.

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