Australian gold producer Tanami Gold (ASX: TAM) has returned high‐grade results from its first round of drilling at the recently‐acquired Central Tanami Gold Project in the Northern Territory which indicate that a key zone of mineralisation may be significantly bigger than initially thought.
The results come from drilling at the Tombola and Miracle deposits, which form a continuous mineralised trend. The area was originally seen by the company as a secondary target and thought to be of lower grade and a likely site to backfill waste material from nearby higher grade pits.
Drilling initially focussed on the relatively shallow down dip extensions of the known mineralisation beneath and adjacent to the planned open pit.
One deep diamond hole, TODD3, was drilled to sterilise the down dip potential of the mineralisation. The result was a high‐grade interval of 5.2m @ 11.6g/t Au from 179.75m, confirming the mineralisation extends well below what was previously modelled.
Other significant intersections from the same area received to date include 3.0 metres @ 8.4g/t Au from 136 metres in TORC5, 5.0 metres @ 3.0g/t Au from 65 metres in TORC18 and 4.0 metres @ 2.7g/t Au from 12 metres in TORC4.
Graeme Sloan, managing director, said the results highlighted the huge potential of the Central Tanami Project.
“When we acquired Central Tanami, we were confident there was substantial undiscovered gold throughout the project area and these first‐up results are already showing our optimism is well‐founded,” he said.
“Central Tanami has JORC Code standard Resources of just over one million ounces and we will be drilling flat‐out to grow this base significantly over the next six months. Based on what we have already seen, we are increasingly confident that the outlook for Central Tanami is extremely exciting.”
The deep high grade intersection from TODD3 and the strong intersection in TORC5 are located in the footwall of the main 080° trending Miracle ‐ Tombola trend within a 060° striking zone, which has defined additional mineralisation not previously mined.
The intersection in TORC5 is some 100 metres beneath an historic RAB drill intersection of 9m @ 5.3g/t Au in TX2576. Potential for the proposed open pit to include this additional mineralisation will be decided with further drilling of the up‐dip extensions of the TORC5 intersection.
The high grade intersection in TODD3, at 180 metres below surface, indicates the potential of this deposit to extend to depth well beyond any previous drilling.
A backlog of samples at the company’s contract assay laboratories has resulted in a substantial number of assay results outstanding from this project. Alternative laboratories have been contracted to relieve this backlog in an effort to speed up sample turnaround.
Resource definition and confirmation reverse circulation (RC) drilling at the Road Runner prospect, which is located approximately 7 kilometres south of the 250,000 tonnes per annum Western Tanami treatment facility, has also returned significant results that confirm the shallow nature and tenor of the mineralisation defined by earlier Aircore and RC programmes.
Results include 2.0 metres @ 17.2 g/t Au in RRC110, 2.0 metres @ 12.2g/t Au in RRC140, 3.0 metres @ 8.7 g/t Au in RRC130 and 3.0 metres @ 8.3 g/t Au in RRC133. The results highlight the potential for a shallow high grade open pit.
The mineralisation occurs in a flat lying supergene enrichment zone, approximately two metres thick and occasionally up to four metres thick and lies adjacent to a number of interpreted primary mineralised structures.
These structures could typically provide the source of this supergene enrichment and will be tested for primary mineralisation over the coming months. Some assay results are still outstanding from Road Runner.
Diamond drilling has recommenced at the Sandpiper deposit at Bald Hill after a short hiatus to allow the collation and modelling of the previous drill program and to plan this next phase of drilling.
The first hole in the new program is planned to test the down dip extension of four high grade intervals from diamond hole SPDD14.
If successful this hole will further highlight the underground potential of the Sandpiper deposit, with mineralisation presently known to extend over 400 metres down plunge from the base of the open pit.
Tanami Gold signalled a pick-up in pace of development at the Central Tanami gold project on July 15 with an underwritten pro-rata renounceable 6-for-5 entitlements issue at 1.5 cents to existing shareholders to raise $63.7 million.
Funds raised will retire debt and accelerate exploration at the project, which is the focus of its production growth strategy to lift gold output to 200,000 ounces per annum within two years.