M3 Mining (ASX:M3M) has reported ‘minor’ gold hits from a recent 2-hole reverse circulation drilling program at the El Capitan prospect within its Edjudina Gold Project in Western Australia.
The junior explorer says the program, under which it drilled for 426m at the prospect, was successful in delineating the orientation and geometry of previously intersected gold mineralisation.
However, the top assay results from the program included only 4m @ 0.43 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 140m and 4m @ 0.2 g/t gold from 20m.
Meanwhile, M3 says it found trace element geochemistry in rock chip samples taken from across the Edjudina project, with 4 rocks exhibiting textures reminiscent of epithermal formations and preliminary geochemical results showing minor anomalism for gold and base metals.
The company is still awaiting assays from 939 soil samples collected over 7km to the southeast of El Capitan. These results are due during the first quarter of 2024.
M3 Executive Director Simons Eley says while the results from the company’s recent 2-hole program may not be ‘strong’ in their own regard, the broader potential of the 7.5km trend at El Capitan remains.
“The trend, which hasn’t been systemically drilled by previous companies, aligns with abundant gold nugget finds, sporadic historic gold drilling intercepts, and it is now believed to encompass a potential epithermal zone identified through recent rock chip sampling.”
“The trend, which hasn’t been systemically drilled by previous companies, aligns with abundant gold nugget finds…”
He adds that one of the 2 new drill results is interpreted to belong to the same structure that hosted high-grade gold mineralisation in a previous drillhole that returned 1m @ 2,303 g/t gold from 27m.
As such, Eley says the variability in grade within the quartz veining at El Capitan highlights the localised ‘nuggety’ nature of the mineralisation in the area.
Alongside Edjudina, M3 owns the Victoria Bore Copper Project, also in Western Australia.
M3 Mining had roughly $2.3 million cash and cash equivalents at hand as of 30 September 2023, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Joshua Smith at Mining.com.au
Images: M3 Mining
