Meteoric Resources NL (ASX: MEI) has announced an encouraging update on the diamond drilling program at its 100% owned Juruena Gold project in Brazil.
Meteoric reported that the first Diamond Drill Hole JUDD001 intersected visible gold within a 16m wide alteration zone at Dona Maria Prospect in Juruena. JUDD001 was designed to confirm Bonanza grades at Dona Maria prospect.
MEI reported that the drilling to date has intercepted multiple alteration zones and are now being geologically logged and sampled.
The company also announced that a second rig has begun drilling, ramping up to 2 shifts so drilling production rates will now increase.
Juruena gold project
The Juruena gold project is located located on the western end of the highly prospective Alta Floresta Belt, in the state of Matto Grosso in Central Brazil.
The project contains a JORC Compliant Resource Estimate of 1.3Mt for 261koz Au at 6.3 g/t. The Mineral Resource Estimate is contained in three prospects: Crentes (55koz), Querosene (118koz) and Dona Maria (88koz). The mineralisation is largely open along strike and at depth.
Juruena has been the site of extensive artisanal mining with recorded production in excess of 500,000 oz of gold, largely produced during a gold rush in the 1980s.
MEI’s Novo Astro Gold Projects is also near the Juruena gold project, located 25km to the south east.
Impressive historic intersections
Bonanza grades were reported around historic holes at Juruena in March 2019. Highlights included 1.8m @ 20.9g/t (J‐07); 8m @ 62.4g/t (MR‐10/2015), and 4.8 m@ 11.9g/t (MD 10‐2016) at Dona Maria.
Drill program commenced
Meteoric has currently commenced a maiden drill program at Juruena comprising 26 holes for 4,700 metres to confirm the historic bonanza grades.
The company had reported that this initial drill program will concentrate on the high-grade zones at the Dona Maria, Querosene and Crentes resources, as well as test other known prospects including Mauro, Tomate, and Uilliam.
Drilling at Dona Maria
The Company reported that it has now completed the drilling of two DDHs, JUDD001 and JUDD002. For both JUDD001 and JUDD002, the host rock was a coarse‐grained, kfeldspar altered (pink) granite.
The company said that these are currently being logged and sampled before being dispatched for assay. The results are expected to be available in approximately four weeks.
Meanwhile, drilling is ongoing at DDH JUDD003 and DDH JUDD004.
Visible gold intersected at JUDD001
The company reported that at diamond drill hole JUDD001, significant visible gold has been intersected within a broad alteration halo at target depth. Meteoric said that it represents an initial confirmation of the high‐grade zone at Dona Maria.
MEI reported that the hole JUDD001 was completed to a final depth of 143.53m. The company announced that the drill hole intersected multiple significant zones of alteration, and one zone of visible gold at 112.8m.
Diamond hole JUDD002
The company said that the diamond hole JUDD002 was drilled to 104.54m. MEI reported that multiple significant zones of alteration were intersected at JUDD002, but no free gold was observed.
Management comments
MEI’s Managing Director Andrew Tunks said: “It is fantastic to see visible gold in our very first hole and an early vindication of our decision to commit to drilling the project immediately after acquisition.
The exploration team in Brazil were excited to report visible gold in our first hole and this provides management with additional confidence in our program and the prospectivity of our Brazilian assets.
Importantly, after the recent capital raise (ASX: MEI 12/08/2019) we do not have to compromise the planned Juruena program to commence drilling at Novo Astro which we now anticipate commencing in Mid‐September.
We are hard at work on both projects and look forward to updating the market when we have received some assays and interpreted the results.”
