Welcome to our new weekly feature, TNM Drill Down, focusing on the top gold assays of the past week. Assays are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence.
This week’s top result was from Burtville East, one of four prospects at Panther Metals’ (ASX: PNT) 90-sq.-km Merolia gold project in Western Australia.
The best hole from the first-pass six-hole, reverse-circulation drill program at Burtville East returned 15 metres of 53.94 grams gold per tonne from 27 metres depth (grade x width of 809.1) in hole BVE006. The wider intercept included seven 1-metre intervals of greater than 10 grams gold, including 1 metre of 748 grams gold and 1 metre of 125.5 grams gold.
The prospect contains a series of wide quartz reef outcrops and significant geochemical anomalies, along with mineralized stockpiles of historically rejected material.
Panther Metals Ltd. (ASX: PNT) completed its IPO on the ASX in December 2021. London-listed Panther Metals PLC (LSE: PALM) holds 36.6% of the company. “The interception of a new shallow broad high-grade gold zone in hole BVE006 poses a rethink about the accepted mineralisation trends at Burtville East,” said Panther Metals PLC in a release. “The prior interpretation of the mineralised trend was a north-south structure. It is now thought that the formation of mineralisation is more complex and likely the result of shear deformation, forming a series of northeast-southwest trending en-echelon dilations.”
The week’s second-best assay was from Desert Gold Ventures’ (TSXV: DAU) flagship SMSZ project in western Mali.
A metallurgical hole drilled at the Barani East zone at the project returned 45 metres of 12.41 grams gold per tonne in hole BE-22-MET-OO1. While the company said in a release that the grade was higher than expected, the purpose of the hole was to collect enough oxidized mineralization in one hole to conduct a series of metallurgical and geotechnical tests. As such, it was drilled mostly down dip and the width is not representative of the zone’s true width. True widths of nearby holes that intersected the zone with 13 metres of 7.82 grams gold, and 16 metres of 5.66 grams gold are estimated at 80-90% of drilled length.
SMSZ hosts measured and indicated resources totalling 8.5 million tonnes grading 1.14 grams gold per tonne for 310,300 oz. and 20.7 million inferred tonnes grading 1.16 grams gold for 769,200 ounces.
Drill core boxes at the Treaty Creek gold-silver project in British Columbia. Credit: Tudor Gold
The week’s third best hole is a diamond drill hole completed at Tudor Gold’s (TSXV: TUD) 60%-owned Treaty Creek project in British Columbia’s Golden Triangle. Hole GS-22-134 hit 663 metres of 0.83 gram gold per tonne (grade x width of 550.29), 2.07 grams silver, and 0.0995% copper. Assay values are uncut and true widths have not yet been determined. Hole GS-22-134, which included a higher-grade 205.5-metre interval grading 1.76 grams gold-equivalent per tonne, was a stepout from the 300H and CS600 resource area at the Goldstorm deposit. It is part of a 30,000-metre drill campaign that Tudor Gold began at Treaty Creek in May.
An initial resource for the project’s Goldstorm-Copper Belle porphyry-type gold deposits was released in March 2021. Measured and indicated resources were estimated at 815.7 million tonnes grading 0.66 gram gold per tonne and 3.6 grams silver, for 17.3 million oz. of contained gold and 93.4 million oz. of contained silver. Inferred resources were estimated at 311.7 million tonnes grading 0.72 gram gold and 4 grams silver for 7.2 million oz. of contained gold and 40.6 million oz. of contained silver.
American Creek Resources (TSXV: AMK) and Teuton Resources (TSXV: TUO) each hold a 20% interest carried through to a production decision.
