Ora Gold (ASX:OAU) has wrapped up the $1.4 million acquisition of the Murchison Project in Western Australia from gold and base metals explorer Sipa Resources (ASX:SRI).
As part of the buy, Ora, which has a $39.90 million market capitalisation, will pay Sipa $600,000 cash and issue to Sipa 133 million Ora shares at $0.006 per share.
Ora says the acquisition is consistent with its strategic focus on pursuing organic and inorganic growth options.
Commenting on the acquisition, Ora Gold Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alex Passmore says: “The tenure being acquired is complementary to Ora Gold’s existing tenement package in the Murchison–Meekatharra area and triples the company’s total landholding.
We believe the new tenure has strong potential to host additional high-grade gold deposits, and we look forward to embarking on a regional exploration program across the various prospects in October 2023.”
“The tenure being acquired … triples the company’s total landholding”
The exploration activities planned at Murchison include soil sampling, aircore drilling, and targeted reverse circulation (RC) drilling across various prospects on the newly acquired tenure.
Ora has also been focusing on its Crown Prince prospect as a key growth area for gold resources through a combination of slimline reverse circulation (SLRC), RC, and diamond drilling.
Recent results include drillhole OGGSRC567 with 3m @ 77.092g/t Au from 53m and drillhole OGGSRC563 with 12m @ 8.26g/t Au from 28m, including 5m @ 17.19g/t Au from 33m.
Passmore says: “We are pleased with the recent early results from the company’s drilling at Crown Prince, which continue to demonstrate the high-grade nature of gold mineralisation. We look forward to receiving further data from this program, with the vast majority of sample assays pending.”
The company says the results indicate that the ‘SEB’ zone is open along strike and extends northeasterly, which was previously interpreted. Drilling has also targeted ‘high-grade’ lodes and delineated further zones to the northeast, which will be followed up.
Ora plans to conduct a deeper RC and diamond drilling program, aimed to follow up on down-dip mineralisation in the more well-defined hinge zones.
The Crown Prince prospect lies within the Garden Gully Project, 22km northwest of Meekatharra in Western Australia.
Ora Gold is a Western Australian gold exploration company with a ‘substantial’ package of tenements in the prolific Murchison goldfield near Meekatharra, Western Australia.
As of 30 June 2023, the company had $1.585 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, Ora launched a $3 million capital raise.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Ora Gold
