The Northern Miner‘s Colin McClelland wrote in the TNM Drill Down the 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 Costmine Intelligence.
Companies operating in Cuba, Australia and Canada lead the best assays reported Sept. 15-22. Antilles Gold (ASX: AAU) plans to build a mine with the Cuban government. Ora Gold (ASX: OAU) wants to resurrect a mine from World War 1 while American Eagle Gold (TSX-V: AE) is exploring in west-central British Columbia.
Antilles Gold said on Sept. 21 that drill hole PDH-029 at the El Pilar project in Cuba cut 10.5 metres grading 31.9 grams gold per tonne from 46.5 metres down hole for a grade x width of 335.
The company, based in Bowrat about 100 km south of Sydney, is about three-quarters through a 10,000-metre drilling program at El Pilar. It’s aiming to provide an initial resource estimate for the project about 60 km west of Havana.
The gold lies in the upper part of the proposed Nueva Sabana copper mine being developed in a 50:50 partnership with the government led by Miguel Díaz-Canel. Construction may start in next year’s second quarter and take 10 months.
Antilles estimates the mine will cost US$20 million to build and be able to process 500,000 tonnes of ore a year. Discussions have begun to help fund the project through an advance on sales of gold concentrate, the company said in a release.
Ora Gold said on Sept. 21 that reverse-circulation drill hole OGGSRC567 at the Garden Gully project cut 3 metres grading 71.09 grams from 53 metres depth for a grade x width of 231.
The company is drilling to expand the Garden Gully project, about 760 km northeast of Perth, where Ora is based. The site produced 21,000 oz. gold under the name Kyarra for several years before 1917 when higher labour costs during the war contributed to its closure.
It hosts 218,000 indicated tonnes grading 4.3 grams for 30,000 oz. contained metal, according to a 2019 resource estimate. It holds 261,000 inferred tonnes grading 3.1 grams for 26,000 oz. contained metal.
Ora says the Crown Prince prospect where the drilling of this assay was done continues to be a focus for growing the resource. The prospect comprises the MOB and SEB mineralized zones where high-grade results have been returned from shallow depths.
American Eagle Gold said on Sept. 19 that drill hole NAK 23-11 at its NAK project cut 661.4 metres grading 0.29 gram from 45.6 metres depth for a grade x width of 192.
The same hole at the site, located 85 km northeast of Smithers, B.C. near the south end of the Alaska Panhandle, intersected 102 metres of 1.04% copper equivalent, Toronto-based American Eagle said in a release.
“NAK’s mineralization begins near surface within an even broader envelope of consistently mineralized rock, and all in an area with excellent year-round access and infrastructure,” CEO Anthony Moreau said.
Drilling in 2022 at the pre-resource site showed the property’s near-surface mineralization potential is larger than what historic drilling had found.
