Meeka hits thick gold at Turnberry North, eyes pit expansion

Meeka Metals has nailed some exceptional drill results on the northeastern flank of its Stage 1 Turnberry open pit design within its Murchison Gold Project near Meekatharra in Western Australia. 

Key intercepts include standout widths like 22m at 3.25g/t gold that housed a 10m stretch going 6.03g/t gold. A separate 48m intercept came in at 1.26g/t gold and included 17m at 2.53g/t gold. 

Two more intercepts in different holes include 36m at 1.07g/t gold, including 11m at 1.94g/t gold and 25m at 1.88g/t gold, including 9m assaying 3.93g/t gold. 

The early assays reveal broad, high-grade gold hits outside the planned Stage 1 Turnberry open pit design which are almost certain to swell the resource and stretch the pit’s life amid gold’s blistering price rally.

The program marks Meeka’s first pass drilling at Turnberry North since restarting operations and since the company’s first gold pour mid-year at the nearby upgraded Andy Well mill. 

Since then, the focus has been on plant expansion and corporate housekeeping, but today’s results signal a pivot back to resource growth. 

The intercepts, from reverse circulation (RC) holes, underscore untapped potential in a folded mafic sill flanked by sediments, where mineralisation hugs north-northeast trending fold axes that plunge steeply north. 

The structural geometry begs for follow-up drilling, with gold open at depth and along strike east of the open pit shell.

Meeka Metals managing director Tim Davidson said: “Given the pervasive nature of high-grade gold in this drilling, the first by Meeka in this area, the planned Stage 1 open pit at Turnberry North is currently being expanded to capture this additional mineralisation.”

The newly-defined zones, particularly in higher-grade fresh rock below 100m depth, could spice-up the underground feeds.

The real kicker is that the Turnberry Stage 1 open pit was optimised at a modest A$2350 per ounce gold, back when the precious yellow metal was trading in the low A$3000s. 

Fast-forward to today, and spot gold is roaring at A$6,477.66 per ounce, more than 2.7 times that optimisation benchmark. 

Even if gold pauses to catch its breath it would not matter much as the December 2024 DFS based on the long-outdated gold price already shows some blockbuster numbers including a 10-year life, 76,000 ounces per year peak production and a billion dollar pre-tax cash flow.

The net present value on the project at the original assumed DFS gold price is $616M and the internal rate of return comes in hard at 180 per cent on the original 1.2M ounce, 3g/t gold resource.

Throw in today’s gold price and some successful new drilling and those metrics will likely jump off the page.

RC drilling is pressing ahead at Meeka’s central and southern targets too, with the rig looping back north to Turnberry once that work is completed. 

Meanwhile, underground diamond drilling at Andy Well kicked off last quarter, with assays due in the final quarter of the year. Operations are keeping pace with the planned DFS ramp-up, with September gold production already topping forecasts.

Meeka’s Murchison revival is settling in quickly, blending open pit mining at Turnberry and St Anne’s with underground operations at Andy Well. 

The new hits don’t just add ounces; they de-risk the playbook in a gold bull market that is rewriting economics. 

And the market seems to like the story too with Meeka’s share price tripling to 25c just this year alone to hit a $730m market cap.

Which is not bad for a project that only poured its first gold in early July.

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