- Ora has received assays for a 7,500m, 66-hole infill RC drilling program at Crown Prince. This drilling was undertaken to better define mineralised lodes within the south eastern zone (SEZ) deposit to upgrade resource categories within a future conceptual open pit area.
- This drilling has returned some exceptional grades and intercepts including:
- 20m at 277g/t Au from 40m including 4m at 1,368g/t Au from 52m (OGGRC859)
- 15m at 14.7g/t Au from 152m (OGGRC872)
- 9m at 21.44g/t Au from 28m including 2m at 77.8g/t Au from 31m (OGGRC883)
- 7m at 11.74g/t Au from 132m (OGGRC874)
- 11m at 6.72g/t Au from 4m (OGGRC886)
- 12m at 6.05g/t Au from 76m including 4m at 10.2g/t Au from 80m (OGGRC895)
- 9m at 6.27g/ t Au from 66m including 1m at 18.6g/t Au from 66m (OGGRC888)
- 7m at 6.87g/ t Au from 133m (OGGRC864)
- New very high-grade zones have been encountered in the footwall of SEZ lodes which will likely improve grade and tonnage estimates in this area.
- This infill drilling has generally confirmed gold mineralisation modelling and has upgraded the quality in many areas.
Ora Gold Limited (ASX: OAU, “Ora” or the “Company”) is pleased to report assay results from infill RC drilling at the Crown Prince Project (M51/886) part of Ora’s broader Garden Gully tenure (Figure 1).
Ora is continuing to progress Crown Prince towards development, targeting production commencement mid calendar year 2025. Among the several workstreams underway, including regulatory approvals, the Company has completed infill drilling ahead of releasing an ore reserve.
The program was designed to target zones of mineralisation within a conceptual pit design at Crown Prince that are currently in the inferred category of mineral resource (refer ASX release 20 February 2024). This drilling successfully confirmed mineralised zones and improved gold grades in some key areas.
Other improvements from this infill drilling include delineation of new near surface high grade zones and parallel lodes in new positions in the footwall and hanging wall of the south eastern zone (SEZ) mineralisation.
These zones are within the conceptual open pit for the Crown Prince deposit and are expected to add to the mineral resource and future mining inventory. Importantly, the grades returned in this infill drilling support existing published grades and may provide a foundation for an uplift in the average grade overall for the resource.
Assay results discussed in this announcement are shown in Appendix 1 & Figures 2-5. RC hole details are included in Table 1.
Alex Passmore Ora Gold’s CEO commented:
“We are very pleased to report these exceptionally high-grade results returned from recent infill drilling. The infill drilling was carried out successfully and has confirmed or improved the mineralisation model we have for Crown Prince.
Such high-grade headline results demonstrate the high quality nature of the Crown Prince Project and point to its likely strong economics during development and production.
We look forward to providing further information on the updated resource estimate in coming weeks and then to follow up with an ore reserve as work progresses.”
Next Steps
The drilling outlined in this release brings the drill spacing at the south eastern zone (SEZ) down to around 15m x 15m which is considered sufficient to underpin a predominantly indicated category in new resource estimation runs.
The Company, with its consultants, is working on a resource update to reflect this drilling together with that announced previously. This release is expected in coming weeks and will underpin an ore reserve estimate later in November or early December.
Work on the Crown Prince Project development studies and finalisation of an ore purchase agreement with Westgold Resources Ltd continues. The company looks forward to providing further updates as they are available.
About us:
Ora Gold Limited (ASX:OAU) is a mineral exploration and development company which holds a substantial package of tenements in the prolific Murchison goldfield near Meekatharra, Western Australia.
Contact details:
Jane Morgan