Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our data provider Mining Intelligence.
Snowline Gold (TSXV: SGD) reported last week’s top gold assay from its Rogue project in eastern Yukon, Canada. On July 5, Snowline reported that drill hole V-23-034 returned 418.3 metres grading 1.88 grams gold per tonne, from 5.7 metres depth, for a width x grade value of 786.4. The hole, cut into the northeast margin of the Valley target, was the first of the 2023 drilling program and intersected the highest gold grades below 10 metres to date at Valley.
Three drills are turning at Valley, with more than 5,800 metres of drilling and 13 holes completed there so far, out of the 10,000-metre program planned for the year. “The consistency of gold grades over large distances is remarkable,” said Scott Berdahl, CEO & Director of Snowline. “We eagerly await the many forthcoming analytical results from our ongoing drill campaign at Valley, in addition to stepping out to drill test additional intrusion-related gold targets on the broader Rogue Project over the coming weeks.” The pre-resource Rogue project comprises 442 mineral claims over a 112.3-sq.-km property.
The week’s second-best assay came from Western Australia. On July 5, Torque Metals (ASX: TOR) reported that hole 2023PRCDD76 at its flagship Paris project returned 35 metres grading 14.12 grams gold from 157.8 metres depth, for a width x grade value of 494.2. That intersection also included 1.2 metres grading 185 grams gold from 174.7 metres depth. The result was among four diamond drill holes that returned several gold mineralized intervals at Paris, located southeast of the city of Kalgoorlie, and near Gold Fields’ (JSE: GFI) St. Ives Gold Mine, and Karora Resources (TSX: KRR) Higginsville gold operation.
“Torque’s first-ever diamond drilling campaign at Paris and Observation prospects confirmed the existence of high-grade gold mineralized zones in all four drill holes,” said managing director Cristian Moreno. “Torque is well-funded to continue driving activities at the Paris gold camp and enhance the scale of this growing gold project in the Western Australian gold fields.” The exploration is part of a 6,128-metre, 52-hole hole reverse-circulation drill program at the Paris gold camp that includes the namesake target as well as the HHH and Observation targets.
The third-best assay of the week came from Sunstone Metals’ (ASX: STM) Bramaderos gold-copper project in southwest Ecuador. On July 3, Sunstone reported that hole LMDD026 at the Limon target returned 185 metres grading 2.67 grams gold from 90 metres depth, for a width x grade value of 493.95. The drilling at Limon shows the potential for a significant increase in the size and grade of the Bramaderos resource. Based on an initial estimate of the Brama-Alba targets southwest of Limon, Bramaderos contains 9 million indicated tonnes grading 0.38 gram gold for 200,000 gold-equivalent oz., and 147 million inferred tonnes grading 0.35 grams gold for 2.7 million gold-equivalent ounces.
Sunstone managing director Malcolm Norris said the results from LMDD026 exceed those of the initial discovery hole LMDD017, demonstrating huge potential for the epithermal system. “Limon is a high-grade orebody with mineralization extending from surface to at least 250 metres deep and is open to the east, west, at depth and potentially to the north of the system plunges in that direction,” he said. “[The holes] support our view that the Bramaderos project has every potential to be a 10 million oz. district with multiple deposits within 4 km of one another.”
