Aruma Resources says it has uncovered the presence of a high-grade gold-bearing structure in the latest phase of drilling at the company’s Salmon Gums project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region.
Assay highlights returned a 5.9m intercept grading 10.5 grams per tonne gold from 38.4m, including 2.6m going 9.85g/t gold from 38.4m and 0.85m at an impressive 40.9g/t gold from 43.4m.
The recent program of seven diamond-core holes was planned to follow up and extend previous bonanza-grade gold intersections at its Thistle prospect, including 5m at a spectacular 50.2g/t in one hole, with numbers running as high as an eye-watering 224g/t gold. All assays have now been received with gold mineralisation intersected in six of the seven holes.
Management says its assay results confirm multiple high-grade gold intersections within the targeted Norseman-style structures at the Thistle prospect, providing further confidence in the target’s potential as an emerging deposit in an underexplored area of the Goldfields region.
Aruma Resources managing director Glenn Grayson said: “The latest results from our ongoing exploration at the Salmon Gums Project continue to deliver exceptional results and validate our exploration approach. Norseman-style mineralisation is structurally controlled and can be incredibly high-grade, and this is exactly what we are seeing at Salmon Gums, with our drilling programs continuing to deliver very high-grade gold results, which extend the high-grade mineralised zone at the Project.”
The company’s 100 per cent-held Salmon Gums project covers some 360 square kilometres and is about 60km south of the WA town of Norseman. Previous drilling and soil sampling at Salmon Gums highlighted a 4.3km mineralised envelope along the same greenstone belt that houses Pantoro’s high-grade Scotia mining centre, just 30km up the track.
The Scotia deposit churned out 811,000 tonnes at 5.9g/t gold for 155,000 ounces between 1987 and 1996 for Central Norseman Gold Corporation. Pantoro has since carved out a mineral resource of 15.5 million tonnes at 2g/t for 1 million ounces.
Aruma plans to evaluate and model the available data from the latest drill results to design its next phase of exploration in a bid to extend the high-grade mineralised footprint at Salmon Gums. The next phase of drilling is expected to kick off in the first quarter of next year.
With the current gold price sitting above $3000 per ounce, the company’s high-grade hits in a region known for respectable gold deposits bode well for the future of the operation.
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