MML Near mine exploration success.
This warrants a news release in its own right but PR under the current management can't be said to be a strong point.
However, in this Quarterly released today the company gives some more details of its drill success at Royal Crowne Vein, 1.5km north of the Co-O mine, confirming the information previously available from a presentation and the previous quarterly but has still not commented in detail on the significance of the find. However the report concludes by saying:
"Geological interpretation and modelling are ongoing, as input and basis to the subsequent resource estimation."
This confirms the first drilling success from on-going near mine exploration with a resource estimation to follow.
• Completed 20 holes and drilled 5,087 m
Partial drill results from these 20 holes are referred to in both the Sept Quarterly (4/5 holes) and this December one (16 holes) so that the full picture is confusingly the combination of these two quarterlies. Tabulation of results in the normal way has not been done so we are left with 2 separate summaries and updated schematic diagram 8 showing all 20 drill locations.
September Quarterly. A total of 297 drill core samples from four holes and preliminary core samples from a fifth have been sent for assay. Of these total samples, 24 returned significant grades above 1.0 g/t gold with peak grade of 1 metre at 87.32 g/t from 156 metres (SNG027). Two sub-parallel zones of vein-style mineralisation have been recognised with a projected strike length currently at about 150 metres.
December Quarterly. From the 1,401 assay results received during the December 2018 Quarter, 87 samples returned significant grades above 1.0 g/t gold, out of which 19 samples returned grades above 3.0 g/t gold and 10 samples returned grades above 5.0 g/t gold. The peak assay was 1.0 metre @ 30.63 g/t gold from SNG035 starting at 119.55 metres and is associated with quartz-sulphide stockworks. Significant intercepts with grades above 3.0 g/t gold are shown in Figure 8.
• At least three main zones of mineralisation identified with preliminary strike length of about 200m.
The cluster of 6 drills at the southern end of the site have all returned decent results.
A selection of some of the best drill hole results incl:
SNG026: 3.6 g/t, 7.8 g/t Au
SNG027: 3.0 g/t, 4.3 g/t, 87.32 g/t Au
SNG030: 4.2 g/t, 3.1 g/t, 10.9.3 g/t Au
SNG031: 12.9 g/t Au
SNG035: 3.2 g/t, 30.63 g/t Au
SNG044: 8.9 g/t, 20.1 g/t, 9.3 g/t Au
As mentioned last time, if this discovery is economic and as the Medusa mill is running at only 55% capacity (100k oz pa) it should be possible for it to be developed and add to the throughput with additional cost for the development only.
Durian Prospect
The Durian Prospect is located about 1 km north of the Co-O Mine (Figures 8 & 9) and is defined by an oblong-shaped moderate to high IP chargeability anomalous zone with coincident low resistivity anomalous zones. The geometry of the IP anomaly suggests the potential presence of a structurally-controlled vein-style mineralisation associated with a diatreme structure and/or shallow intrusion.
A revised 7-hole 2,500 metres drilling program is scheduled commencement in the March 2019 quarter to test the IP chargeability anomaly in the Durian Prospect (Figure 8).
In the Western portion of the Durian prospect four drill holes are proposed to validate the observed IP chargeability anomalies associated with outcropping moderate grade (i.e. 1 to 3 g/t gold) veins and stockworks, and moderate to high grade (i.e. > 5.0 g/t gold) historical drill intercepts. These are in addition to the initial three proposed drill holes established targeting the Eastern portion of the IP chargeability anomaly.
