Western Australia-focused mineral exploration company Miramar Resources (ASX:M2R) has defined an initial gold exploration target following a combination of aircore (AC), reverse circulation (RC), and diamond drilling (DD) at its Gidji joint venture (JV) Project in Western Australia (WA).
The company says the initial shallow gold exploration target is estimated at 1.3 to 3.1 million tonnes (Mt) at a grade of 1.2 to 1.5g/t gold, and highlights ‘significant’ potential for gold mineralisation to exist at the Gidji project.
Miramar adds that the gold zone is situated within the Marylebone target, which shares similarities to the historic Panglo gold deposit that had a maiden supergene gold resource of about 117,000 ounces, and could contain between 55,000 to 155,000oz of gold.
The new exploration target was estimated from various drilling techniques comprising 121 AC holes, 26 RC holes, and a diamond hole conducted by the company since starting exploration at the project in late 2020. The target is currently restricted to the shallow supergene and/or alluvial gold mineralisation encountered within the Marylebone target.
Commenting on the discovery, Miramar Executive Chairman Allan Kelly says: “Our primary aim at Gidji is to discover one or more large bedrock gold deposits, similar to the large Paddington deposit, immediately north of our project.
After our first aircore drilling campaigns at Gidji, we recognised that there could also be ‘significant’ shallow supergene and/or alluvial gold mineralisation which could potentially be developed in the short term, given the proximity to the Goldfields Highway and various gold processing operations.
“After our first aircore drilling campaigns at Gidji, we recognised that there could also be ‘significant’ shallow supergene and/or alluvial gold mineralisation which could potentially be developed in the short term…”
The amount of shallow supergene and/or alluvial gold discovered to date, along with multiple other targets, also implies a significant bedrock source nearby which is yet to be discovered.”
The company also notes other large AC footprints similar in size to Marylebone, which include the Blackfriars and Highway targets, have not been included in the exploration target due to a lack of drilling data when compared to Marylebone.
With the initial gold zone at Marylebone now defined, Miramar announces further work will be required to convert this target estimate into a JORC compliant mineral resource, including increasing the drill density with further RC drilling, fire assay analysis, and systematic gravity measurements.
Miramar Resources is an ASX-listed exploration company focused on discovering gold, iron oxide copper gold (IOCG), nickel-copper-platinum group element (Ni-Cu-PGE), and rare earth element (REE) deposits within Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, Murchison, and Gascoyne regions. The company’s Gidji JV Project is located about 15km north of Kalgoorlie and is described as underexplored due to transported material, including a paleochannel, covering the most prospective geology.
The project is 80% owned by Miramar, which purchased the interest in several tenements along the Boorara Shear Zone as part of an initial public offering (IPO) in October 2020. Other assets included within Miramar’s exploration portfolio include the Whaleshark Project, Bangemall Project, and Lang Well Project in WA.
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