Middle Island Resources Limited (ASX: MDI) has announced a very high-grade initial drill intercept at the new Ridge satellite deposit within its Sandstone gold project in Western Australia.
MDI reported that the new hole MSRC530 intersected 4m at 99.5g/t Au, including 1m at 390g/t Au (repeat assay 502g/t Au) in initial Phase 2 RC drilling at the new Ridge deposit at the Sandstone gold project.
Middle Island said that MSRC530 is the most northerly hole completed to date at the Ridge satellite deposit and immediately adjoins the Shillington Gap target, where exploratory drilling will be undertaken at the end of the Phase 2 RC campaign.
The company said that the assay results derived from infill and extension RC drilling at the Ridge prospect are still incomplete and, as such, it is not yet possible to establish the full significance of this initial intersection in context.
MDI reported that a high resolution airborne magnetic survey and drone digital terrain model have been completed over M57/128, M57/129, and P57/1395 at Sandstone.
MDI said that ~9,000m of the Phase 2 drilling campaign has been completed and the program is running to schedule.
Sandstone project
The company’s 100%-owned Sandstone project and processing facility is situated 12km south of the township of Sandstone, ~400km northwest of Kalgoorlie, and located on a sealed highway between the mining towns of Mt Magnet and Leinster in the East Murchison Mineral Field of Western Australia.
The Sandstone gold project comprises two granted Mining Leases on which the processing plant is situated. Tenements include M57/128, M57/129, P57/1395, P57/1384, P57/1442, and E57/1102.
Significant deposits include Two Mile Hill, Shillington, Wirraminna, Goat Farm, Twin Shafts, and Plum Pudding deposits. Other prospects with interpreted potential to generate open pit gold mineral resources include Ridge, McIntyre, McClaren, Old Town Well, Wirraminna Laterite (East & West), Davis, Tailings (South & East) prospects, and the G2 & G3 gravity targets.
Drilling at Ridge deposit
The company had recently commenced infill and extension drilling at the new Ridge satellite deposit at the Company’s 100%-owned Sandstone gold project in the central goldfields of Western Australia. The new Ridge lies northeast of the Sandstone gold processing plant and on permitted Mining Lease M57/129.
MDI said that the Phase 2 RC program is exclusively focussed on open pit targets at Sandstone and is designed to infill and extend existing and new deposits defined by the Phase 1 program, with the objective to define Mineral Resources to an Indicated classification. The company said that some 9,000m of the Phase 2 drilling campaign has been completed and the program is running to schedule.
Assays from MSRC530
The company reported that assay results have been derived from a single RC drill intercept in MSRC530 at the new Ridge deposit.
MDI said that the drill intercept in MSRC530 is based on 1m individual samples, reported at a notional open pit cut-off grade of 0.6g/t Au and other parameters. The company said that all results are based on 50g fire assay analyses completed by Nagrom in Perth, and were prepared and reported in accordance with the JORC Code 2012.
High-grade results from MSRC530
The company announced that a single, yet very high grade, initial drill intercept derived from the drill hole MSRC530.
MSRC530 is an extension hole drilled at the extreme northern end of the Ridge satellite gold deposit, which remains open to the north into the Shillington Gap target, where initial exploratory RC drilling is planned later in the Phase 2 campaign.
MDI reported that MSRC530 includes an intercept of 4m at 99.5g/t Au (from 13m), including 1m at 390g/t Au (from 14m) for which a duplicate assay of 1m at 502g/t Au was returned.
The company said that the bonanza grade intercept in MSRC530 lies at shallow depth, hosted within a shallow northeast dipping unit of banded iron formation (BIF) comprising part of the Shillington BIF package.
Interestingly, this initial result lies some 40m along strike from a Phase 1 RC drill intercept of 3m at 8.77g/t Au, lending considerable support for this style of mineralisation persisting to the north, beneath shallow cover, into the Shillington Gap target area.
Airborne magnetic survey
The company announced that a high resolution airborne magnetic survey and drone digital terrain model have been completed over M57/128, M57/129, and P57/1395 at Sandstone.
MDI said that the processing of the airborne magnetic and radiometric data has been finalised and interpretation is in progress prior to drill planning at the Shillington Gap exploration target.
Extension of POW
The company said that an extension of the existing program of work (POW) over M57/129 has been approved to accommodate additional drilling requirements at the McClaren, McIntyre, and Ridge satellite deposits, along with planned exploratory drilling of the Shillington Gap target.
Updates and next steps
The company announced that the oxide diamond coring of all new satellite deposits for bulk density, metallurgical and geotechnical purposes is planned to start on schedule during the week commencing 6 July. MDI reported that the Feasibility Study update is progressing well, simultaneous with the Phase 2 drilling campaign.
MDI said that the infill, extension, and verification drilling at the Ridge prospect has just been completed (results pending) in advance of preparing a Mineral Resource estimate.
The company said that Mineral Resources will be estimated prior to consideration as Ore Reserves in a feasibility study update planned for the September quarter 2020.