Great Northern Minerals Limited (ASX: GNM) has announced highly encouraging assay results from the first two RC drill holes at its Golden Cup Gold Mine in Northern Queensland.
The company reported that intersections of 7m @ 7.49 g/t Au from 38m and 9m @ 4.72 g/t Au from 35m were received from the Golden Cup Project.
GN said that the assay results from the remaining 6 RC drill holes are awaited and expected to be received in the next 10 days.
Great Northern Minerals also announced an update on its Big Rush project in Queensland.
Golden Cup mine
The Golden Cup Mine is a small but high-grade heap leach operation located 15 kilometres from the Camel Creek Mine.
The Golden Cup mineral resource is composed of 3 lodes located beneath 3 previously mined open pit gold mines. Lodes 2 and 3 are part of the same mineralised structure but their relationship to Lode 1 has not been established.
The historic gold production from the Golden Cup oxide zone was approximately 20,000 ounces. At a 0.75 g/t Au cut-off grade, the initial inferred resource estimate for Golden Cup is 256,000 tonnes at 3.6 g/t Au for approximately 30,000 ounces of contained gold.
Drill program at Golden Cup
GNM had recently completed a small Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling program at Golden Cup, consisting of 8 holes for 639 metres. This program was aimed at obtaining further geological and QAQC data.
The 8 RC drill holes completed at the project in early December includes holes GCRC074, GCRC075, GCRC076, GCRC077, GCRC078, GCRC079, GCRC080, and GCRC081.
The company reported that assay results from the first two RC drill holes GCRC074 and GCRC078 have now been received.
GNM said that the mineralised intercepts correspond to logged intervals of quartz veining and elevated amounts of visual arsenopyrite and pyrite. The company noted that the assay results received correspond in tenor to nearby drill holes completed by previous holders of the project.
High-grade intercepts
The company reported that high grade drill intercepts were returned from the two RC drill holes, GCRC074 and GCRC078. It may be noted that gold assays were all by Fire Assay.
Hole GCRC074
The company said that the hole GCRC074, drilled beneath Open Pit 3, returned an intersection of 7m @ 7.49 g/t Au from 38 – 45 metres downhole.
Hole GCRC078
GNM said that the hole GCRC078, drilled beneath Open Pit 1, returned an intersection of 9m @ 4.72 g/t Au from 35 – 44m downhole.
Next steps
Great Northern Minerals reported that the assay results from the remaining 6 drill holes at the Golden Cup Project are awaited. The company said that multi-element assays are awaited and are expected to be received in the next 10 days.
GNM said that further work will include drill testing for extensions to the known mineralization, mostly down dip; additional metallurgical test work to determine the most appropriate process route for gold recovery; and completion of an initial Scoping Study on the economics of developing a gold producing operation at Golden Cup.
Latest updates on Big Rush project
The Company announced that RC drilling has now been completed at the Big Rush Project in Queensland.
GNM said that a total of 8 holes for 1,042 metres were drilled and a total of 794 samples submitted for gold and multi-element analysis.