Meeka Metals Ltd (ASX:MEK) was active in advancing its gold and rare earth projects in WA with work ongoing throughout the December 2022 quarter at the Murchison Gold Project and at Circle Valley Project.
Drilling continued at the Murchison, focussed on mineral resource growth with new zones of shallow oxide gold drilled at St Anne’s.
Furthermore, RC drilling intersected high-grade primary mineralisation with visible gold below previously identified zones of oxide mineralisation.
At Turnberry, shallow oxide gold was intersected outside the mineral resource and confirms the continuity of mineralisation to the north, into a previously untested zone.
Drilling also targeted a conceptual southern extension to the Western Flank mineralisation and this also returned shallow oxide gold.
Follow up drilling will commence in 2023.
Maiden resource in the March 2023 quarter
Meeka managing director Tim Davidson said: “We completed another active quarter with teams advancing our Murchison and Albany-Fraser projects.
“The bulk of our work focussed on the Murchison Gold Project where we drilled over 42,000m safely and productively to deliver Mineral Resource growth.
“Based on this drilling we upgraded the Turnberry Mineral Resource in January 2023, and will deliver an initial Mineral Resource for St Anne’s in the March 2023 quarter.”
Circle Valley Project
Meeka Metals completed diamond drilling at Circle Valley in October 2022.
Four holes were drilled delivering valuable information in advance of extensional drilling in the March 2023 quarter.
Positive rare earth metallurgical test results from Circle Valley were received in November 2022, which in addition to development of a mineral resource, support future economic studies.
Davidson added: “Diamond drilling was also completed at Circle Valley to inform a geology and structural model to guide extensional drilling in 2023, following up the strong gold results received during 2022.
“Also at Circle Valley, positive results were returned from our ongoing rare earth metallurgical test program. The results show that the mineralisation can be upgraded using low cost and simple beneficiation processes prior to metal extraction through leaching.
“The positive results provide confidence to advance our rare earth projects to the Mineral Resource stage, for which drilling commenced in January 2023.
“Finally, we ended the quarter with a strong cash position of $6.7 million, which will be actively deployed with ongoing drilling, metallurgical testing and feasibility study work providing strong news through the year.”