Meeka high-grade Murchison gold hits prompt likely pit expansion

Meeka Metals’ reverse circulation drilling west of its current Turnberry South stage one open pit design has nailed a string of gold runs with a best intercept of 21 metres at 5.13 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 5m going 15.65g/t. The top intercept was obtained from 51m.

With most other hits from less than 83m downhole, the new shallow high-grade zone will likely justify the westward expansion of the stage one design. 

Turnberry is one of Meeka’s gold mining developments at the company’s Murchison gold project, about 50 kilometres north of Meekatharra in Western Australia’s Murchison region.

The project comprises five exploration licences and two mining leases covering about 281 square kilometres across the northern part of the Mount Magnet and Youanmi Shear Zones. It includes the Andy Well mine, among the State’s best gold discoveries in more than 15 years.

Meeka's next three best gold hits from the recent drilling program include 18m at 3.61g/t from 83m, including 4m going 10.85g/t; 11m at 4.04g/t from 52m, including 1m at 22.5g/t with a further 2m at 7.46g/t; and 12m at 1.81g/t gold from 38m, including 1m at 10.8g/t. 

A further four holes in the same zone produced intercepts ranging in length from 6m to 14m with overall gold grades of 1.43g/t to 2.03g/t, each with 1m intercepts at gold grades between 4.4g/t and 10.8g/t.

All of the holes are inclined at 60 degrees to the west and terminate well beyond their last gold intercepts, but as yet there are no deeper holes probing further west that might definitively indicate a limit to gold in the design wall area.

If the stage one pit design is expanded westwards, the rim of the proposed new pit wall will have to move west by at least 60m to access the base of oxidation, so the move would potentially require additional holes to sterilise the cut-back zone, subject to any other geological information the company holds. 

Meeka has also intercepted additional high-grades on the east side of the Turnberry South open pit design, including a best gold hit of 4m at 11.65g/t from 66m, including 1m running a handsome 44.5g/t. 

A second gold intercept near the floor of the design pit comprises 6m going 5.15g/t from 108m, including 2m running 13.25g/t.

Two other holes on the east side also made solid gold intercepts. One jagged 8m at 2.23g/t from 134m, including 1m at 14.5g/t and the other nailed 1m going 24.8g/t from 53m. 

The company says reverse circulation drilling is ongoing along strike and up-dip of the known high-grade gold zones at Turnberry.

Meeka Metals’ managing director Tim Davidson said: “We had not previously intersected this high-grade gold zone on the western side of Turnberry South due to the orientation of prior drilling. We are now prioritising drill delineation along strike to incorporate into an expanded grade control model and updated Stage 1 open pit design.”

In other developments, the company has begun grade control drilling at its nearby Turnberry and St Anne’s projects. Open pit pre-strip excavation at its St Annes North starter open pit has begun, ahead of schedule.

Meeka is also constructing a 20km haul road between the plant site and the centre of its planned mining activities and is continuing with plant upgrade and refurbishment work that is expected to be completed mid-year. 

First ore mining and ore haulage from the open pit mining centre to the processing plant commence in April, ahead of Meeka’s scheduled mid-year process plant commissioning. 

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