Musgrave Minerals Ltd (ASX:MGV, OTC:MGVMF) has been given a strong indication of the upside potential of the Cue Joint Venture over Lake Austin in Western Australia’s Murchison district with partner Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) assuming management of the JV and increasing the exploration budget.
Evolution elected to increase the budget for the second half of FY22 to at least $8 million from $5 million following strong diamond results of up to 4.26 metres at 41.5 g/t gold from 160.74 metres and aircore results up to 34 metres at 0.64 g/t from 124 metres.
At West Island, ongoing diamond drilling has identified multiple new northwest-trending lodes each with strike lengths of more than 200 metres and open in all directions.
Follow-up aircore drilling at West Island on Lake Austin has extended the mineralised dolerite envelope and encouragingly mineralisation along the dolerite remains open in all directions.
“Indication of upside potential”
Musgrave managing director Rob Waugh said: “The gold system at the Cue JV with Evolution continues to deliver strong results with diamond drilling confirming the potential for multiple high-grade basement gold lodes within the dolerite sill at West Island.
"Evolution increasing the exploration budget in H2 2022 and electing to act as earn-in manager from January 1, 2022, is a positive move and an indication of the upside potential of the joint venture ground.”
The West Island zone is part of a broader regional 7-kilometre-long anomalous gold corridor within the joint venture.
Mineralisation at West Island is hosted within a differentiated dolerite intrusive sill, similar to that hosting the high-grade Great Fingall and Golden Crown deposits of Westgold Resources 25 kilometres to the north at Cue.
The Great Fingall and Golden Crown deposits host a combined 4.4 million tonnes at 14.1 g/t for 2.0 million ounces.
Diamond drilling program results
Results of diamond drilling at the Cue JV continue to identify multiple, new northwest trending lodes oblique to the favourable dolerite host unit at West Island.
The 4.26-metre intersection in hole 21MODD025 included 0.41 metres at 400.2 g/t from 160.74 metres with another strong result being in hole 21MODD033 that returned 6.0 metres at 2.7 g/t from 125 metres.
Results to date confirm the geological model developed at West Island whereby mineralisation is hosted in multiple narrow lodes of limited strike extent constrained by the favourable dolerite host unit.
The interval in 21MODD025 is encouraging because it indicates the potential for high-grade mineralisation to exist within individual lodes.
Hole 21MODD033 was drilled 200 metres north of 21MODD025 and is interpreted to have intersected a separate structure.
Results are pending for a further five diamond holes.
Diamond drilling to date at West Island has only tested a small area of basement and mineralisation remains open along strike and at depth.
Drilling will progress through the March quarter 2022 to delineate the potential scale of mineralisation at West Island whilst beginning to focus on the economic potential of previously identified gold-bearing structures.
Aircore drilling results
Under the Musgrave-Evolution JV, a third phase of regional aircore drilling has now been completed on Lake Austin.
Apart from the 34-metre intersection in hole 21MOAC032, other highlights from this phase are:
- 10 metres at 1.43 g/t from 78 metres in 21MOAC069; and
- 12 metres at 0.93 g/t from 78 metres and 17 metres at 0.49 g/t from 100 metres to the end of hole in 21MOAC068.
The results continue to delineate the favourable dolerite host sill along strike which is important for hosting the better grades at West Island. Results from a further 72 aircore holes are pending.
Ongoing exploration
- Diamond drilling to test the basement beneath regolith gold mineralisation on Lake Austin is continuing;
- Assay results for five diamond drill holes at West Island are pending; and
- Assay results for 72 aircore drill holes on the JV area are pending.
Evolution JV
In October 2019, Musgrave entered an Earn-In and Joint Venture Exploration Agreement with Evolution Mining over a large area of Lake Austin and surrounds on the Cue Project in the Murchison District of Western Australia.
The Evolution JV lies to the north of and excludes all the current resources at Cue (including the Lena and Break of Day deposits), the new White Heat and Big Sky discoveries, and the Mainland option area.
Evolution can earn a 75% interest in the JV area by sole funding A$18 million on exploration over a five-year term.
The JV partner has spent approximately A$9 million on the joint venture with a further A$3-6 million planned for H2, FY22.