Aruma Resources Ltd (ASX:AAJ) has struck anomalous gold mineralisation in maiden reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Melrose Gold Project in Western Australia, an encouraging step in exploring the tenure for high-grade gold.
The company completed 48 holes for 4,784 metres of drilling over the Gossan Hill target, where anomalous gold was previously discovered.
No economical grades were identified in the anomalous gold mineralisation, which Aruma believes is due to the absence of shale formation in the area – a layered fine-grained formation of sedimentary rocks that often hosts sulphide mineralisation.
The company has expanded the project with the award of balloted exploration licence, E08/3499, a 20-square-kilometre area which contains the Mt McGrath Gold Project and reportedly holds gold in veins.
Aruma will now focus on a mapping and chip sampling program, investigating historical geophysical targets over Melrose as the next phase of exploration on the project.
$830,000 R&D tax refund
AAJ has been awarded an $830,677.50 research and development (R&D) tax incentive refund for the 2020-2021 year.
The award represents 43% of allowable research completed by Aruma this year, under the 'Mineralisation Model Incorporating Volcanic Ash Sequences' research project.
This model is a new area of research for the previous 'Hydrothermal Gold in Sediments' model. Recent discoveries in unexplored areas of Australia have underlined the potential of the model to support exploration.
Aruma uses the technique to generate and explore all of its gold projects and believes it has the potential to deliver successful outcomes.
With this latest tax incentive, the company’s total R&D tax refunds total more than $5.5 million over the last 12 years.