Meeka Metals has unveiled a 60 per cent boost for its St Anne’s gold resource in Western Australia’s Mid West region, increasing to 40,000 ounces at more than 3 grams per tonne.
The resource forms part of the company’s 1.23 million-ounce Murchison gold project that sits in the area bearing the same name, about 650km north of Perth. The news comes after the company completed a drill program late last year aimed at pumping up its St Anne resource, with drill results received in January.
The highlights from the program were 31m at 1.11g/t gold from 31m including 4m at 4.66g/t, 12m at 1.2g/t from 38m including 2m going 3.52g/t and 9m going 2.48g/t from 59m including a 5m slice at 3.76g/t gold. The drill program resulted in an 11 per cent increase in the deposit’s grade to 3.1g/t.
Management says St Anne’s is a shallow high-grade oxide deposit that remains open at a depth of about 120m, with an interpreted southerly plunge. The deposit has a strike length of 550m and has not been subject to mining.
The company says the increase to the resource is based on 39,000m of mainly air-core (AC) drilling, with the drillholes spaced on a 20m-by-20m grid, enabling it to be classified in the indicated category. It believes further drilling is likely to deliver growth to its underground resource.
Meeka Metals managing director Tim Davidson said: “This resource update captures the strong infill drilling results from St Anne’s reported in the March 2024 quarter. It confirms the up-dip position and continuity of gold in the shallow oxide zone. It also shows an improved grade in the open pit Mineral Resource and provides immediate input into the DFS.”
The Murchison gold project has a total resource of 1.23 million ounces at 3g/t and gold reserves of 410,000 ounces at 3.1g/t. It sits on a combined 281-square-kilometre area and includes its Turnberry, Andy Well and St Anne’s deposits.
Turnberry has a 685,000-ounce gold resource going 2g/t and Andy Well contains a “ridiculous” gold grade of 8.6g/t for an impressive 505,000 ounces.
Meeka is looking to develop the project and submitted relevant documentation in December last year, with approvals expected in the June quarter, in addition to providing an update at a similar time on its secured debt funding proposals.
Further updates this quarter are expected to involve resource upgrades for both the Turnberry and Andy Well deposits. Interestingly, it will be the first update for Andy Well since 2017.
The company is pushing ahead with its definitive feasibility study (DFS) with a laser focus on restarting its Andy Well processing mill. The DFS is expected to highlight the capital savings and time benefits of rebooting the mill at a time when the global gold price is going “gangbusters”.
Meeka also has some other worthy projects on its books. The company’s Circle Valley rare earths project is north of the popular coastal town of Esperance and sits within a region becoming known for its quality clay-hosted rare earths deposits.
It released a mineral resource for the rare earths project in June last year that consists of 98 million tonnes at 890 parts per million total rare earth oxides (TREO). A highly-valuable component of the resource is the 21,560 tonnes of magnet rare earths, praseodymium and neodymium. The magnet rare earth oxides (MREO) sit at a high 25 per cent of the TREO.
Circle Valley also has a developing gold project with recent drill results of 23m at 5.09g/t from 13m including 10m at 9.35 g/t and 16m going 3.06g/t from 32m including 4m at 10.8g/t gold.
The company also has the Cascade rare earths project sitting north-west of Esperance on an imposing land area of 2269sq km.
With its two-pronged approach to becoming a mineral producer, Meeka may find its gold and rare earths projects are just the answer to achieving its goals.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Craig Nolan
