Auric Mining hits high-grade gold beyond WA Munda pit shell
Auric Mining (ASX: AWJ) looks set to expand its Munda gold deposit near Widgiemooltha in Western Australia, following a suite of impressive recent drill results that included a four-metre hit at a hefty 10.49 grams per tonne (g/t) gold roughly 100m west of the planned open pit.
The high-grade extensional result came from a broad-spaced reverse circulation (RC) drilling program designed to shore up both the existing ounces and to test for resource growth beyond the current pit design.
The close-spaced grade control drilling program, targeting the top 30m of the planned pit, also delivered a suite of impressive near-surface results, including a peak intercept of 15m running at 5.56g/t gold from just 6m. That interval also housed a richer 3-metre core at 19.30g/t. Other notable shallow hits included 4m at 19.34g/t gold from 9m and 9m at 7.82g/t from 17m.
The company says the results are an encouraging start to a substantial drilling campaign aimed at de-risking the next stage of development ahead of a planned mine restart in 2027.
These initial results are an encouraging start to our substantial drilling program at Munda. The high-grade extensional intercept of 4m at 10.49 g/t gold supports the potential to grow the Resource along strike beyond the current pit design, while the grade control results continue to demonstrate strong near-surface mineralisation within the planned open pit. Auric Mining Managing Director Mark English
The work follows an exceptionally successful starter pit mining campaign at Munda which produced 8886 ounces of gold and outperformed its predictions by a whopping 46 per cent. After costs, the gold sold for a staggering $43.5 million, teasing at what is to come from the remaining 192,000 in-ground ounces grading 1.43g/t gold.
Auric also pulled off its lucrative joint venture at the Jeffreys Find gold mine - completed earlier this year - banking $16.5 million in cash for the company from an initial investment of about $1.2 million. The windfall has helped swell Auric’s war chest to almost $38 million, giving it plenty of financial firepower to roll out its near-term expansion plans across the Eastern Goldfields and pursue its ambition of becoming what the company calls “Australia’s next integrated mining house”.
A key piece of that puzzle fell into place recently when the company pulled off a mighty coup, snapping up a significant package of processing machinery for its Burbanks gold plant south of Coolgardie for just $1.2 million, against an estimated replacement value of between $15 million and $20 million. The bargain-basement buy is set to help bring the planned 600,000-tonne-per-annum carbon-in-leach processing plant to life in 2027.
Owning its own mill will allow Auric to control the full production cycle, processing ore from both Munda and its other nearby projects.
With geotechnical diamond drilling now complete, the company expects to deliver a final pit design and an updated ore reserve estimate for Munda next month.
Auric appears to be ticking all the right boxes, from continuing to uncover high-grade ounces at Munda to securing a processing plant for a song. With the pieces now falling into place, the company is gearing up for is likely an all-out gold assault when mining at Munda kicks back into gear in the new year.
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