Musgrave Minerals Ltd (ASX:MGV, OTC:MGVMF) continues to showcase the potential of its flagship Cue Gold Project in Western Australia with drilling at the Break of Day prospect intercepting gold above the current resource grade of 10.2 g/t.
The exploration company completed a reverse circulation (RC) drilling program focused on resource conversion from inferred to indicated within the prospect’s stage one pre-feasibility study (PFS) open pit design.
Cue's Break of Day high-grade mineralised trend, comprising the Break of Day and White Heat deposits, has a total mineral resource estimate (MRE) of 982,000 tonnes at 10.4 g/t gold for 327,000 ounces of gold, with 70% of this in the higher confidence indicated resource category.
The Break of Day stage one PFS includes 668,000 tonnes at 7.0 g/t for 149,300 ounces in open pit mining, with a subsequent underground mine tally of 484,000 tonnes at 4.8 g/t for 75,200 ounces as a production target.
Exceptional project
Musgrave managing director Rob Waugh said: “Following the strong financial metrics of the stage 1 pre-feasibility study in April 2023, the company has continued drilling to progress resource conversion and growth.
“This drilling is continuing to deliver excellent results at the Cue Gold Project in both extensional and infill drilling.
“These are fantastic results and continue to demonstrate the exceptional quality of the Cue Gold Project.
“This and ongoing work is focused on further enhancing the project economics by growing resources, de-risking the project and adding to the initial five-year mine life.”
RC drilling results
The new intercepts at the Break of Day include:
- 9 metres at 61.4 g/t gold from 36 metres, including 2 metres at 248 g/t from 36 metres;
- 15 metres at 60.3 g/t from 14 metres, including 1-metre at 845.1 g/t from 24 metres;
- 17 metres at 35.7 g/t from 40 metres, including 1-metre at 222.1 g/t from 40 metres and 1-metre at 233.8 g/t from 54 metres;
- 7 metres at 20.2 g/t from 94 metres, including 1-metre at 86.2 g/t from 95 metres;
- 5 metres at 21.2 g/t from 66 metres, including 1-metre at 84.3 g/t from 67 metres;
- 17 metres at 6.1 g/t from 15 metres;
- 16 metres at 4.8 g/t from 13 metres;
- 2 metres at 5.7 g/t from 70 metres; and
- 2 metres at 5.2 g/t from 129 metres.
Regional plan showing new drill hole collars and significant prospect locations with new drill result areas.
More gold strikes
Meanwhile, at the Break of Day North lode, Musgrave continues to find gold after intersecting 14 metres at 2.8 g/t from 50 metres in February.
Follow-up drilling at the target, which is only 50 metres north of the Break of Day MRE and 60 metres from the current stage one PFS pit crest, struck 19.5 g/t gold within a one-metre intercept from 62 metres.
This new high-grade mineralised position is hosted within the same high titanium basalt unit that hosts the Break of Day and White Heat deposits.
At the Lena deposit, RC drilling focused on a number of minor lodes within its open pit design intersected
- 16 metres at 7.7 g/t gold from 62 metres;
- 1-metre at 18.0 g/t from 19 metres;
- 3 metres at 4.7 g/t from 10 metres; and
- 8 metres at 2.2 g/t from 22 metres.
These intercepts are inside the current MRE but outside the stage one PFS pit design.
Those outside both the current MRE and PFS include 1-metre at 12.1 g/t gold from 68 metres and 1-metre at 8.3 g/t gold from 30 metres.
New targets
The Cue Gold Project is 30 kilometres south of the township of Cue in the Murchison district of Western Australia.
Cue’s current MRE totals 12.3 million tonnes at 2.3 g/t gold for 927,000 ounces, including the Break of Day and the Moyagee Western Trend (9.8 million tonnes at 1.7 g/t gold for 541,000 ounces), both in the southern area of the project.
Apart from the RC drilling at the Break of Day, Musgrave recently completed a regional RC and aircore drilling program to define new targets to grow Cue’s resource base while also completing selective sterilisation drilling to progress the development.
Anomalous gold was identified in new areas outside the MRE, including at East Numbers, Karanui and the southern extension of the Lake Austin Dolerite.
At East Numbers, aircore drilling intercepted 7 metres at 1.5 g/t gold from 72 metres and 3 metres at 2.0 g/t gold from 68 metres.
At the southern extension of the Lake Austin Dolerite, aircore drilling struck 4 metres at 1.6 g/t gold from 84 metres while at Karanui, RC drilling hit 6 metres at 1.8 g/t gold from 27 metres.
Forward plan
Further drilling is planned to commence at Cue within two weeks.
Other upcoming activities include:
- Drilling of depth extensions of high-grade shoots at Break of Day and White Heat to commence in June;
- RC drill testing of regional high-grade targets to commence in late June;
- Grade control drilling at Break of Day and White Heat to commence late June;
- Costeans to be completed at Break of Day and White Heat in July to expose and validate widths of the near-surface lode projections, confirm grades with grab sampling and validate hard pan depths to de-risk project execution and in particular, strengthen the modelled 9-month payback period; and
- Bulk density and further gravity recovery testing of Break of Day oxide mineralisation to commence in July.