Gascoyne Resources Ltd (ASX:GCY) has welcomed a 24% increase to the gold resource at Yalgoo Gold Project in Western Australia’s Murchison District.
The gold explorer and project developer bolstered the estimate through a maiden mineral resource at Applecross prospect, as well as an update to Yalgoo’s key Melville deposit.
Thanks to the upgrade, 47,224 more gold ounces have been added to the broader Yalgoo resource, bringing it up to more than 243,000 ounces.
It looks like that figure will soon grow again, with maiden mineral resource estimates (MREs) planned for the nearby Don Bradman prospect and the high-grade Crescent target early in the new year.
Investors also welcomed the news with shares up as much as 6.6% to an intraday high of 32.5 cents.
Delivering on Yalgoo’s potential
Speaking to the upgrade, Gascoyne managing director Simon Lawson said: “The delivery of a 24% increase in shallow resource ounces at Yalgoo is a great result for the Gascoyne team.
“Previous owner Firefly Resources had just started to build the resource base and de-risk the opportunities over the Yalgoo Goldfield and we are pleased to be able to start to deliver on this potential with this resource upgrade.
“The key Melville Gold Deposit now stands at just over 200,000 ounces of gold from surface with over 80% of those ounces classified in the higher-confidence indicated category.
“Importantly, the shallow oxide gold across the surface has been further de-risked with a close-spaced grade control drilling program.
“A mining lease application has been lodged with DMIRS over Melville, including possible extensions to the north and south and we have received conditional approval for haulage options from the Shire of Yalgoo. All the requisite mining-related studies are now underway.”
Building the MRE
Thanks to the upgrade, Yalgoo’s MRE now stands at 5.238 million tonnes of ore, grading at 1.45 g/t for 243,613 gold ounces.
The boost was primarily driven by a maiden resource estimate for the Applecross deposit, which is now reported to host 43,611 ounces of inferred resource at 1.36 g/t at a 0.7 g/t cut-off.
The Yalgoo upgrade also factors in a grade control upgrade for the Melville deposit, said to host 4.242 million tonnes of ore at 1.47 g/t for slightly more than 200,000 gold ounces in the indicated and inferred categories.
This marks a 16% increase in shallow, 'at-surface' gold ounces across the deposit and improves its sub-surface resolution.
Gascoyne completed the upgrade thanks to a grade control drilling program, which took place over a close-spaced 10-metre by 10-metre grid.
What’s more, all new gold ounces at Melville lie within the higher-confidence indicated category.
Lawson commented: “The definition of a maiden 43,000-ounce inferred resource at Applecross, located just north and along-strike of Melville, delivers more, shallow, readily-accessible gold ounces to the growing Yalgoo Gold Project mineral inventory.
“These ounces have been delivered at an impressively low discovery cost of just $10 per ounce drilled, and within a timeframe of less than six months.
“This shows how cheaply, and quickly well-targeted drilling can deliver additional resource ounces at Yalgoo.”
Infill drilling is planned at Applecross to further strengthen the maiden resource to the indicated category.
Diamond drilling results
Prior to the Gascoyne/Firefly merger, Firefly completed six diamond drill holes at the Melville deposit.
From here, samples were sent off for metallurgical test-work, providing geotechnical information to underpin an open-pit design.
Assay results have since come back and a number of shallow gold intersections have been returned.
Some of the better results include:
- 20 metres at 2.1 g/t gold from 57 metres, including 8 metres at 4 g/t and 11.33 metres at 1.4 g/t from 85.67 metres;
- 37 metres at 1.4 g/t from 10 metres, including 7 metres at 4.3 g/t from 39 metres; and
- 22.68 metres at 1 g/t from 39 metres and 11 metres at 2.9 g/t from 83 metres.
Next on the agenda
Commenting on Gascoyne’s future plans, Lawson concluded: “Our intention is to continue to build on this strong platform with further targeted drilling to be undertaken in the coming months.
“With maiden resource estimates also underway for two additional prospects, Don Bradman and Crescent, we can look forward to strong news-flow being generated from Yalgoo in the early part of 2022.
“With these new shallow gold resources at the Yalgoo Gold Project adding to the existing resources at Dalgaranga, Gascoyne now has over 900,000 ounces of shallow gold in resource over our combined Murchison gold assets.
“Combined with our outstanding team and infrastructure at Dalgaranga – where we have established an industry-leading processing cost of $14/tonne – and the growing resources of shallow higher-grade material at the nearby Yalgoo Gold Project, we are rapidly de-risking our production profile while creating a very solid foundation for an exciting period of growth.”