Meeka Metals is keeping its golden streak alive at its flagship Murchison project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, striking 16 metres at 9.45 grams per tonne (g/t0 gold from 45m at its St Anne’s deposit.
The most impressive result was a high-grade 7m core averaging 19.9g/t of the precious yellow metal.
Other notable hits on the tally sheet were 17m running at 7.27g/t gold from 48m, including 6m grading 18.93 g/t, and 23m at 2.3 g/t gold from 34m.
The latest intercepts continue to push the northern extension of the St Anne’s project's mineralised envelope and sit in the same orientation as a stellar 23m hit grading at 26.73g/t gold the company reported earlier this year.
The deposit’s north-west trend remains open with several recent high-grade hits of 8m at 11.83g/t and 6m averaging 2.72g/t, which have lured the company to send back the drill rig to track the full extent of the lucrative gold lode.
And Meeka’s golden streak doesn’t stop at St Anne’s.
At the company’s nearby Turnberry deposit, the latest haul pulled up 3m at 31.6g/t gold from 99m and a further 1m at 37.2g/t gold within a broader 29m intercept running at 2.09g/t gold from 102m.
The budding gold miner has nearly finished a 20-kilometre haul road between its processing plant and an open pit mining centre at the project, while it is also putting the finishing touches to a processing plant upgrade.
In the mining space, grade control drilling of the shallow, high-grade oxide starter pits at Turnberry and St Anne’s is underway in preparation for the commencement of open pit mining next month.
Access and services are also being established at the high-grade Andy Well underground mine.
Meeka Metals managing director Tim Davidson said: “The assays continue to demonstrate thick zones of high-grade gold and confirm the base case production plan from the open pits and point to potential upside in this plan.”
Meeka Metals is running all systems go across its Murchison project, which is 60km north of Mt Magnet and hosts an impressive 1.2-million-ounce gold resource averaging 3g/t.
The project’s latest definitive feasibility study, tabled late last year and using an 8 per cent discount rate, estimates it will have a staggering pre-tax free cash flow of $1 billion alongside a net present value of $616 million. The study also lays out a remarkable payback period of just seven months.
As gold hovers around its all-time high of $4675 an ounce, every $100 per ounce over the study price of $4100 will deliver Meeka $52m extra in pre-tax cash flows.
The study also tipped production to 544,000 ounces across a 10-year mine life, with peak annual sales reaching 76,000 ounces in year five.
The project is forecast to achieve an all-in sustaining cost of $1982 per ounce, allowing plenty of gross profit margin for gold price volatility.
Binding the company’s drilling, mining and operations activity together will make for a pretty exciting story for Meeka over the next few months – one that punters might well find to be a page-turner.
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By Helen Barling
