- Meeka Metals (MEK) increases its Turnberry gold resource in Western Australia by 12 per cent
- The increase brings the company’s Murchison gold project total to 12.4 million tonnes at three grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 1.2 million ounces
- Analysis by independent technical experts increased the resource at the Turnberry deposit to 10.6 million tonnes at two g/t gold for 685,000 ounces
- Meanwhile, an initial mineral resource for St Anne’s is expected this quarter, with a pre-feasibility study due in June
- Meeka Metals’ shares were trading down 2.94 per cent at 6.6 cents at 1:50 pm AEDT
Meeka Metals (MEK) has increased its Turnberry gold resource in Western Australia by 12 per cent.
The increase brings the company’s Murchison gold project total to 12.4 million tonnes at three grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 1.2 million ounces.
The news follows analysis by independent technical experts at RSC Mining and Mineral Exploration, lifting the resource at Turnberry to 10.6 million tonnes at two g/t for 685,000 ounces.
Turnberry is a shallow, high-grade deposit with a strike length of 1.7 kilometres that remains open to the north, south and at depth.
The Turnberry resource averages 1600 ounces per vertical metre from surface to a depth of 200 metres, where the density of drilling reduced.
Meeka reported there is potential for underground mining after initial open pit operations at the project in Western Australia.
Meanwhile, an initial mineral resource for St Anne’s, which is also part of the Murchison project, is expected this quarter and will feature in the company’s pre-feasibility study due in June.
Meeka’s Managing Director Tim Davidson said the resource was based on more than 80,000 metres of drilling, including nearly 6000 metres of diamond drilling.
“The majority of open pit constrained mineral resource is now in Indicated as we move toward mining,” he said.
“The open pit optimisation used to constrain the mineral resource reflects recent mining cost escalation in the industry.”
At Turnberry, the open pit resource is constrained within a $2600 per ounce optimised pit shell and above a 0.5 g/t gold cut-off grade.
“This approach has reduced the size of the open pit portion of the mineral resource, which now stands at 330,000 ounces,” Mr Davidson said.
“Cost escalation was mitigated somewhat through the addition of shallow oxide gold on the western flank which falls within the pit optimisation.
“Planning is in place to further extend the strike of this shallow gold in 2023.”
Assay results are pending from extensional drilling done on the eastern flank last month.
Meeka Metals’ shares were trading down 2.94 per cent at 6.6 cents at 1:50 pm AEDT.