Estrella Resources Limited (ASX: ESR) has announced highly encouraging assay results from diamond core drilling at its Munda Gold Project in WA.
The company reported that assay results have returned very high gold grades including Bonanza gold intersections from two diamond holes drilled north of the Munda Gold Pit.
ESR announced that a peak bonanza value of 1m @ 234.7g/t Au was returned in drill hole EMD002, located within an exceptional broad high-grade zone of 16m @ 21.6g/t Au which includes 9m @ 35.9g/t Au.
The company reported that multiple zones were intersected in both holes outside of current Munda pit boundary.
Estrella noted that the low As and elevated Bi, Cs, K, Mo, Rb, Sr, Te, and W indicates a granitic source to the mineralisation.
The company said that the gold mineralisation occurs above and below nickel sulphide mineralisation.
Munda project
Estrella’s 100%-owned Munda project is located within the gold and nickel rich Widgiemooltha region, 34km south west of Kambalda, WA.
Munda has an inferred mineral resource of 511kt, grading 2.82% gold and containing 46,337 oz.
Drilling at Munda
Estrella had commenced drilling at Munda commenced in July. The drilling was designed to target and define interpreted high grade plunging gold shoots at depth, away from the main pit zone.
It may be noted that the high grade plunging shoot interpretation is a new concept, significantly different to interpretations undertaken by previous explorers.
The interpreted high-grade gold shoots were then 3D modelled by The Company using implicit modelling software on historical drilling datasets.
Big gold hits reported
The company reported that the assays from two diamond holes (EMD001, EMD002) drilled north of the Munda pit returned very high grades and a bonanza 234.7 g/t gold from an exceptional broad high-grade zone of 16m at 21.6g/t gold including 9m at 35.9g/t gold.
Hole EMD001
ESR reported significant hits from EMD001 which includes 9.3 g/t Au from 2.0m; 4.8 g/t Au from 6.90m; 2.6 g/t Au from 15.00 m including 15.7 g/t from 1.00 m, and 3.8 g/t Au from 3.00 m; 1.4 g/t Au from 1.00 m; and 1.7 g/t Au from 1.10 m.
Hole EMD002
Important intercepts from EMD002 includes 3.3 g/t Au from 8.00 m including 19.6 g/t Au from 1.00 m; 21.6g/t Au from 16m including 9.5 g/t Au from 1.00 m and including 35.9 g/t Au from 9.00 m, which includes 234.7 g/t Au from 1.00 m, 24.6 g/t Au from 0.30 m, 53.4 g/t Au from 0.25 m, and 12.8 g/t Au from 3.00 m; 2.0 g/t Au from 6.00 m; and 4.4 g/t Au from 4.00 m.
Granitic source
The company announced that drilling intersected multiple zones of mineralisation, with mineralisation occurring within the upper ultramafic but mainly directly below the nickel sulphide mineralisation within the lower basaltic unit.
The gold mineralisation is generally associated with zones of silicified and bleached or chlorite altered rocks surrounding weak to moderate quartz vein/veinlet development.
The company reported that the primary mineralised gold zones characteristically contain narrow stockwork veinlets with weak-moderate alteration, returning elevated bismuth (Bi), cesium (Cs), potassium (K), molybdenum (Mo), rubidium (Rb), strontium (Sr), tellurium (Te) & tungsten (W) geochemistry, indicating a granitic source to the mineralizing fluids rather than a classic shear hosted origin.
The company said that further analysis of the structural/mineralisation controls as well as alteration mapping is required.
ESR said that the geochemical modelling of the multi-element data will be used to vector towards the primary source of the mineralising fluids to better define the next stage of drill targeting.
Results to have significant positive impact
The company reported that the new drilling reported has confirmed the high grade plunging shoot interpretation.
ESR said that this will have a significant impact on future drill targeting, allow an update to the JORC 2012 Mineral Resource, provide confidence in the 3D geological models, and allow robust economic evaluations to occur for the first time on The Project.
Mt Edwards divest Nickel rights
It may be noted that Estrella had entered into a Binding Nickel Rights Sale Agreement with Mt Edwards Lithium Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Neometals Ltd (ASX:NMT), to dispose of the nickel rights in the Munda Project.
This transaction allowed Estrella to share the costs of sampling and assay of the core with Mt Edwards Lithium, enabling the Company to focus on its other core assets.
Next steps
Estrella reported that the structural interpretation and modelling will be undertaken to determine the next steps in drilling and sampling.
The company said that the high grade results will be further checked at alternate labs and /or by alternate assay methods. ESR reported that SG’s will be taken of both mineralised and barren sections of the core.
The company said that although the potential for extensions cannot be determined at this stage given the preliminary stage of the program, however, mineralisation is open.
