Bonanza WA gold hit triggers Aurumin trading frenzy

Aurumin has smashed its previous ASX trading volume record out of the park after it revealed a bonanza gold grade hit of 1m going 344 grams per tonne from 43m in drilling at its Sandstone project in Western Australia’s Mid West region.

The immediate market response saw 56 million of the company’s shares change hands – more than six times its previous record volume since it listed in 2020. Its share price reached an intraday high of 6.8c, jumping 70 per cent from yesterday’s close of just 4c.

The reverse-circulation (RC) campaign had been designed to test seven target areas, with the highlight hit coming from the appropriately-named “Plum Pudding” target. It was part of a longer intercept of 18m going 25.8g/t gold from 30m that, interestingly, included an unexpected 2m void that was most likely evidence of old workings.

It also revealed 2m at 3.84g/t gold from 33m and 10m running 45.17g/t gold from 38m. The 10m run includes 4m at 110.72g/t gold from 43m and 2m at 215.2g/t from 43m, which included the 1m going 344g/t from 43m.

The healthy results suite was all topped off by a separate intercept of 7m at 1.48g/t gold from 71m.

Aurumin managing director Brad Valiukas said: “These are great results from a first-pass exploration drilling program from targeting based on a combination of previous geochemical results and structural interpretation. We got a bonanza result with extensional drilling at Plum Pudding, which is now a priority target so we can expand our current 14koz resource.”

The Sandstone project area lies 520km north-east of Perth and is centred on the Murchison area town of the same name. It contains an estimated mineral resource of 881,000 ounces of gold and is part of Aurumin’s greater Sandstone operations that include its Birrigrin and Johnson Range projects, bringing the company’s total gold inventory to just under the “magic million” at 946,000 ounces.  

Additional encouragement for the prospectivity of the local area came from Aurumin’s other targets – Two Mile West, Old Town Trend and Mt Klempt.

Two Mile West gave up 32m at 0.99g/t gold from 68m including 4m going 4.28g/t gold from 76m. Old Town Trend produced 11m running 2g/t gold from 28m including 4m at 2.97g/t from 32m and Mt Klempt handed down a useful 9m at 1.25g/t gold from 16m.

The Plum Pudding drilling extended mineralisation down-dip, confirming the resource remains open, with gold persisting in stockwork veining from weathered oxide into fresh ultramafics. It is thought the bonanza mineralisation might be the result of supergene enrichment in sheared ultramafic rocks.

At the Old Town Trend target, which was identified in the company’s previous auger drilling program, several locations were drilled to define the geology and probe for mineralised locations, including structural intersections with banded-iron formations. The program successfully jagged quartz in all holes and confirmed a close quartz-gold association where massive quartz veining was identified and interpreted as indicative of strong structural control.

Results were consistent with those obtained in previous rotary air-blast (RAB) drilling that obtained long runs between 10m and 26m at grades of about 1.11g/t gold.

Mt Klempt sits just 1.5km east of the company’s Sandstone gold plant and was found in previous auger drilling to feature a strong gold anomaly. The latest drilling found shallow mineralisation to be associated with clay shears and quartz veining along strike from north-south structures inferred from historical workings.

Drilling at Two Mile West tested a 400m-long north/north-west-trending structural corridor interpreted to host several north-striking faults feeding banded-iron formation horizons to give rise to an extensive surface geochemical anomaly.

Management says it is now focussed on the company’s Central Sandstone project to generate the critical mass necessary for future production. The results of the initial program are a big step towards building sufficient open pit resources to support kicking off a reinvigorated operation.

Aurumin’s recent efforts to divest itself of superfluous ground at Mt Dimer, while retaining negligible to low-cost upsides to defray outstanding debt, bring in cash and enable a stronger focus on its expanding orbit at Sandstone, seems to be paying off.

Today’s basket of gold hits are not just valuable in material resource terms, but also swings the market’s seemingly insatiable hunger for the precious yellow metal firmly onto the project. It will now be interesting to see what else might come up the drill string as Aurumin’s exploration takes further shape.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au