- Ardea Resources (ARL) has announced a maiden JORC inferred mineral resource estimate for its Big Four Gold deposit in Western Australia
- The new resource stands at 178,000 tonnes at 2.7g/t gold for 15,300 ounces
- This estimate was calculated using both diamond and reverse circulation drilling and incorporates both historical and recent drilling results
- Ardea is up a slight 4.08 per cent and shares are trading for 25.5 cents each
Ardea Resources (ARL) has announced a maiden JORC inferred mineral resource estimate for its Big Four Gold deposit.
The Big Four Gold deposit is located within the Goongarrie Nickel Cobalt Project which sits 70 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie-Boulder in Western Australia.
The new resource stands at 178,000 tonnes at 2.7g/t gold for 15,300 ounces.
This estimate was calculated using both diamond and reverse circulation (RC) drilling and incorporates results from drilling in January 2020.
Results from this program that helped with the estimate include 18 metres at 3.38g/t gold from 18 metres, 20 metres at 2.91g/t gold from 76 metres, and 14 metres at 2.40g/t gold from six metres.
Ardea also undertook 3D geological modelling to outline a resource estimate by looking at all available historical and recent drilling programs.
Limited historical drilling has been completed at Big Four with operations during the 1920s and 1930s recovering and processing 571.5 tonnes of ore for 10.53 kilograms of gold with an average grade of 18.4g/t gold.
“Ardea is highly encouraged by the maiden Big Four Gold resource especially given that we only drilled the target for the first time in January this year,” Managing Director Andrew Penkethman stated.
“With the Big Four Gold resource located on a granted mining lease, options will be considered as to how best monetise this asset,” he said.
“This is in addition to unlocking the exploration and production potential of Ardea’s large Eastern Goldfields land holding for gold and nickel sulphide in parallel to de-risking the nickel-cobalt resources within the broader Kalgoorlie Nickel Project,” he added.
Ardea is up a slight 4.08 per cent and shares are trading for 25.5 cents each at 1:37 pm AEST.