Building on the popular weekly Drill Down feature ranking the best gold assays of the week, The Northern Miner has compiled the top 10 drill results for major metals year to date. Here, we present the best gold assays for the year to Aug. 1, 2023. Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by data provider CostMine Intelligence.
Projects in Australia and Canada racked up the richest gold drill results so far this year. The land Down Under controlled two of the top three and the Great White North scooped six spots in the best 10 while outlier Serbia took second place.
Great Boulder at Mulga Bill
Great Boulder Resources (ASX: GBR) notched the best result in our table with a whopping 589.4 grams gold per tonne over 6 metres from 114 metres down drill hole 23MBRC006A for a grade x width value of 3,536.64. It was reported on March 27.
The reverse-circulation hole pierced the Mulga Bill prospect near Meekatharra, Western Australia, 750 km northeast of Perth. It was part of a 13-hole first-phase program of 3,400 metres to test targets in the Central and HGV zones.
In August, the company reported air core drill hole 23SWAC152 at Mulga Bill North cut 4.2 grams gold from 119 metres depth, including 1 metre at 19.1 grams. The Mulga Bill and Ironbark deposits, part of the Side Well project, hold 6.2 million inferred tonnes grading 2.6 grams for contained metal of 518,000 oz., the company said in February.
“With near-resource extensional and infill targets at Mulga Bill and Ironbark as well as a series of untested new targets along the eastern stratigraphy, Great Boulder is aiming to reach the million-ounce resource target within the next two years,” the company said.
Dundee Precious at Čoka Rakita
Dundee Precious Metals (TSX: DPM) scored second on the table with hole RADDMET001 at the Čoka Rakita exploration prospect in eastern Serbia. It cut 40 metres grading 63.5 grams from 517 metres depth for a grade x width value of 2,538.4, the company said on Jan. 16.
Toronto-based Dundee says it has diamond drilled 40,000 metres this year on Čoka Rakita and plans 30,000 additional metres to produce an initial resource estimate by December. The site lies 3 km southeast of the Bigar Hill sediment-hosted deposit and forms part of the Timok magmatic complex in eastern Serbia. The company has other projects in Bulgaria, Ecuador and Namibia.
M3 Mining at Edjudina
In third place, M3 Mining (ASX: M3M) cut 10 metres grading 241.2 grams from 27 metres deep in hole EDJAC164 at its Edjudina project in Western Australia for a grade x width value of 2,412, the company said on July 9.
M3 has completed 6,638 metres of air core drilling at the El Capitan prospect at Edjudina, which is accessible by road about 750 km east of Perth. More assays were due in August.
