Musgrave Minerals Ltd (ASX:MGV, OTC:MGVMF) is celebrating after its latest exploration program returned bonanza and high-grade gold intersections from the Big Sky prospect in Western Australia’s famed Murchison district.
The explorer recently embarked on a reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign at the precious metals target, which forms part of its flagship Cue Gold Project.
Here, MGV unearthed a bonanza 28-metre, 35.9 g/t gold intersection that included a 1-metre, 898 g/t hit, while other high-grade results were also recorded.
Interestingly, Musgrave also uncovered coarse gold in quartz within the RC drill chips from the bonanza hit — an occurrence that management believes validates the potential for high-grade gold zones at the target.
Resource delineation drilling continues across the Big Sky prospect, while infill and RC activity is taking place on a series of key targets.
Ultimately, this activity underpins work towards a maiden resource for the gold prospect, which is expected in the first half of next year.
“Drilling full steam ahead”
Speaking to the bonanza-grade gold hit, Musgrave managing director Rob Waugh said: “This is a very good result and highlights the high-grade potential at Big Sky over the broader 2.6 kilometres of strike.
“It is unusual on the Yilgarn to see such coarse gold in RC drill chips and the results validate our belief that there are high-grade zones within the Big Sky trend.
“The identification of a new dolerite hosted zone in the footwall of Big Sky is also a positive.
“This could be the southern extension of the same dolerite unit identified to the north on the Evolution JV."
“Gold can be hosted in many different rock types on the Yilgarn but dolerites are one of the most prolific host lithologies for large deposits," he said.
“We are drilling full steam ahead to deliver a maiden resource for Big Sky in Q2 2022.
“It’s an exciting area and we look forward to updating the market with further results as assays are received.”
Shares were as much as 8% higher today to A$0.405 while the company's market cap before trading today was approximately A$201.3 million.
Infill drilling turns soil on bonanza hit
At its cornerstone Cue Project, Musgrave is using RC drilling to investigate the 2.6-kilometre Big Sky gold anomaly.
Here, infill drilling hit the bonanza-grade result, which was recorded from 49 metres downhole.
Moving forward, further infill drilling is being planned around the bonanza gold result.
In addition, several other high-grade intersections were tabled, including:
- 2 metres at 6 g/t gold from 32 metres;
- 1-metre at 31.1 g/t from 97 metres;
- 1-metre at 18 g/t from 36 metres;
- 1-metre at 9.9 g/t from 60 metres; and
- 3 metres at 6.2 g/t from 39 metres.
New mineralised target zone
Further, RC drilling has also pinpointed high-grade gold mineralisation in a newly identified dolerite host unit just metres into the footwall of the Big Sky mineralised zone.
This unit could be the southern extension of the same dolerite unit that hosts the gold mineralisation on the Evolution JV tenure to the north.
The new dolerite-hosted gold mineralisation remains open along strike and down dip, while Musgrave is waiting on assay results for further infill drilling in this area.
Some of the best new intersections in the footwall dolerite at Big Sky include:
- 7 metres at 8.6 g/t gold from 43 metres, including 1 metre at 55.2 g/t from 44 metres;
- 3 metres at 13.2 g/t from 3 metres;
- 2 metres at 6 g/t from 94 metres to end of hole;
- 6 metres at 3.6 g/t from 24 metres; and
- 10 metres at 3.3 g/t from 106 metres, including 2 metres at 12 g/t from 110 metres.
A 9,000-metre aircore drilling program is being planned to test this new mineralised target zone over an extended strike extent of more than 5 kilometres.