Ora Gold (ASX:OAU) is continuing to progress its Crown Prince Project, part of its broader Garden Gully tenure, towards development, targeting production to begin in mid-2025.
Among the several work streams underway, including regulatory approvals, Ora Gold has completed infill drilling ahead of releasing an ore reserve.
The program was designed to target zones of mineralisation within a conceptual pit design at Crown Prince that are currently in the inferred category of mineral resource.
Ora has received assays for a 7,500m, 66-hole infill reverse circulation drilling program at Crown Prince. This drilling was undertaken to better define mineralised lodes within the south eastern zone (SEZ) deposit to upgrade resource categories within a future conceptual open pit area.
The drilling returned grades and intercepts including 20m @ 277g/t gold from 40m including 4m @ 1,368g/t gold from 52m (OGGRC859); 15m @ 14.7g/t from 152m (OGGRC872); and 9m @ 21.44g/t from 28m including 2m @ 77.8g/t gold from 31m (OGGRC883).
Other improvements from the infill drilling include delineation of new near surface high-grade zones and parallel lodes in new positions in the footwall and hanging wall of the south eastern zone (SEZ) mineralisation.
The company says these zones are within the conceptual open pit for the Crown Prince deposit and are expected to add to the mineral resource and future mining inventory.
Importantly, the grades returned in this infill drilling support existing published grades and may provide a foundation for an uplift in the average grade overall for the resource.
Ora Gold CEO Alex Passmore says the infill drilling has confirmed or improved the mineralisation model the company has for Crown Prince.
“Such high-grade headline results demonstrate the high quality nature of the Crown Prince Project and point to its likely strong economics during development and production. We look forward to providing further information on the updated resource estimate in coming weeks and then to follow up with an ore reserve as work progresses,” says Passmore.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Ora Gold
