Meeka Metals Ltd (ASX:MEK) has intersected high-grade gold in a diamond drilling program at Circle Valley Project, 100 kilometres north of Esperance in Western Australia.
The five-hole diamond drilling program was undertaken to gather stratigraphic and structural information at the 1,200-metre by 400-metre Anomaly A prospect.
This program intersected anomalous gold in every hole, including two zones of high-grade gold:
- 5.6 metres at 4.63 g/t gold from 76.4 metres, including 1-metre at 17.70 g/t; and
- 4.2 metres at 2.90 g/t from 132 metres including 0.4 metres at 13.57 g/t.
Notably, the key learnings from the stratigraphic program include at least two parallel lodes plunging at 30 degrees to the northeast, cross-cutting the relatively flat stratigraphy.
The company has also completed rare earths infill and extensional drilling at Circle Valley with assays expected through March and April 2023 and the delivery of an initial mineral resource during the June 2023 quarter.
Significant gold opportunity
Meeka managing director Tim Davidson said: “This short diamond drilling program was designed to give our team insight into the underlying geology and structural setting at Circle Valley.
“The high-grade gold in this drilling and the broad gold zones returned from RC drilling in 2022 support our view that Circle Valley is a significant gold opportunity.
“Follow-up drilling is now underway based on vectors from the diamond drilling. Results are expected through March and April 2023.
“We have also completed the rare earth infill and extensional drilling at Circle Valley. This drilling targeted ~15 square kilometres in the northwest of Circle Valley, where shallow high-grade rare earths mineralisation grading up to 6,894ppm TREO was intersected in 2022.
“Assays will be reported through March and April 2023 and will enable delivery of an initial rare earth mineral resource during the June 2023 quarter.”
Drill highlights
The diamond holes were drilled to the southeast of an RC drill program, which returned shallow, high-grade intersections into Anomaly A, including:
- 23 metres at 5.09 g/t gold from 13 metres, including 10 metres at 9.35 g/t;
- 24 metres at 1.21 g/t from 24 metres;
- 16 metres at 3.06 g/t from 32 metres, including 4 metres at 10.80 g/t;
- 10 metres at 4.72 g/t from 120 metres including 4 metres at 10.20; and
- 32 metres at 1.39 g/t from 4 metres including 8 metres at 4.96 g/t.
This primary mineralisation sits below a large 1.2-kilometre by a 400-metre zone of regolith gold hosted in gneiss and is associated with pyrite-biotite-muscovite.
Drilling completed in 2022 shows an approximate spatial relationship between potassium feldspar alteration and higher gold grades.
RC drilling is now underway targeting eastern extensions to this shallowly plunging high-grade mineralisation.
About Circle valley
Circle Valley is a greenfield project 100 kilometres north of Esperance in Western Australia and covers a section of the southwestern Albany‐Fraser Mobile Belt in a highly prospective but underexplored frontier.
This is demonstrated by the considerable success AngloGold Ashanti (ASX:AGG) had with the discovery and development of the 7.1 million-ounce Tropicana gold mine, which is currently jointly owned by AngloGold Ashanti and Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL).