De Grey Mining Ltd (ASX:DEG) has received results for an additional 13 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes from the Toweranna gold deposit within its wider Pilbara Gold Project in Western Australia.
The RC drilling is targeting lateral and depth extensions to the existing shallow 2018 Toweranna JORC resource of 143,900 ounces grading 2.2 g/t gold.
Highlights from the latest drilling includes 15 metres at 5.11 g/t gold from 205 metres, 8 metres at 16.37 g/t gold from 228 metres, and 3 metres at 15.34 g/t gold from 36 metres.
Additional assays remain pending and these will feed into an updated resource estimate planned for early in the September quarter.
READ: De Grey Mining completes ore sorting test work from its Toweranna Gold deposit in WA
De Grey’s technical director Andy Beckwith said: “The new drilling results clearly suggest a substantial resource increase can be expected.
“The stacked gold mineralisation has now been confirmed to extend throughout the entire 250 metre diameter granite body and to at least 200 metres depth and remains open at depth.
“The high grade nature of the gold bearing quartz veins is especially encouraging. We expect the large volume of new assays that have been received will support a significant increase in the upper high-grade gold cut in the resource estimate, which may result in an increase in overall grade in addition to increased ounces.
“Importantly, many of the gold lodes remain open below the latest RC drilling and historical diamond drilling shows lodes occur to at least 425 metres depth.”
Toweranna is a potential open-pit and underground gold mine
Toweranna is considered one of four high priority targets alongside Withnell Underground, Mallina and Mt Berghaus, for significant resource extensions that are likely to positively impact the 2.0 million tonnes per annum PFS currently underway.
Toweranna has the potential for significant resource growth, and potential for both open pit and underground mining.
Work programs have been accelerated to expand resources to a nominal 200 metres depth and test mineralisation down to a depth of at least 600 metres.
In March 2019, a Toweranna Exploration Target was defined down to 400 metres depth in the range of 9.6-11.2 million tonnes grading 2.1-2.3 g/t gold for 680,000-800,000 ounces of gold.