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Firefinch’s drilling at 'Morila the Gorilla' identifies new high-grade gold zone

Last updated: 09:39 21 Dec 2021 AEDT, First published: 09:14 21 Dec 2021 AEDT

Firefinch Ltd - Firefinch’s drilling at Morila Gold Project identifies new high-grade zone
Drilling in progress at Morila East.

Firefinch Ltd (ASX:FFX)’s drilling results at the Morila Gold Project in Mali indicate the presence of a new high-grade zone, including several meaningful intersections above 30 g/t gold, on the eastern side of the Morila Super Pit.

The results appear to contradict the historical interpretation that mineralisation in this area is offset by shearing.

Drilling continues at the Morila Project and will be ongoing into 2022 with a more fulsome drilling update to be provided in January.

The Morila Gold Mine is one of the world’s great open pit gold mines, having produced more than 7.5 million ounces of gold since 2000 at grades that were among the highest in the world, earning it the moniker 'Morila the Gorilla'.

Globally significant deposit

Firefinch managing director Dr Michael Anderson said: “It is always exciting to receive high-grade drilling results but to receive several meaningful intersections above 30 g/t gold is certainly noteworthy. 

“It seems with Morila the more we drill, the more we find, and our intention is to continue drilling to better understand this globally significant deposit. 

“Drill rigs will continue to turn over the Christmas-New Year period and we will provide a fuller update on results received in January along with our operations update.”

Results

Results from the three holes include:

➢  5.0 metres at 30.3 g/t gold from 294.6 metres, including 1-metre at 128 g/t;

➢ 0.90 metres at 35.9 g/t from 228.2 metres;

➢ 1.15 metres at 31.2 g/t from 174 metres;

➢ 1.2 metres at 18.1 g/t from 177.3 metres;

➢ 7.9 metres at 5.60 g/t from 313.6 metres, within 22.2 metres at 2.24 g/t from 299.3 metres, including 1-metre at 31.8 g/t;

➢ 36.6 metres at 2.01 g/t from 371.1 metres including 4 metres at 4.24 g/t and 11.1 metres at 2.94 g/t;

➢ 10.5 metres at 1.87g/t from 241.9 metres including 4.1 metres at 3.30 g/t;

➢ 10.5 metres at 1.68 g/t from 155.7 metres including 4.8 metres at 2.51 g/t; and

➢ 6.4 metres at 1.78 g/t from 188.9 metres including 1-metre at 5.95 g/t.

Previous drilling

Previous drilling on the eastern side of Morila was relatively wide-spaced, with mineralisation interpreted to be offset by a major shear zone.

However, the presence of high-grade mineralisation in this drilling suggests this historical interpretation needs to be re-evaluated.

The intersections also lie outside the mineral resources delineated at Morila. Intersections are down-dip of the Morila Pit resource and along strike from the Morila NE resource.

If infill drilling confirms this lode is continuous then it will add additional open pittable mineralisation to the Morila resource.

Follow-up drilling to infill these results and to test for extensions is in progress. Results from this drilling will be used to update the geological interpretation in this area and confirm the likely geometry of these high-grade zones for further drilling.

Following this, an update for the mineral resources for Morila Pit and Morila NE will be completed. Analysis by the more accurate screen fire assay technique is in progress.

Next steps

Four rigs will continue to operate at Morila over the Christmas and New Year period.

Drilling is focused on following up recent and historical high-grade intercepts, as well as improving delineation of mineralisation within initial mining areas to support mineral resources and ore reserves upgrades.

High-grade zones intersected within this drill program will provide priority targets for ongoing drilling in 2022.

Open-pit mining continues to ramp up with primary mill feed being provided by the Viper and Morila Pit 5 as the tailings resource is depleted.

Pre-stripping activities at the Morila Super Pit will begin in Q1 2022, which will facilitate a ramp-up in annual production to levels above 100,000 ounces of gold in 2022.

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