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Mt Malcolm hits colour in first Dumbarton gold drill holes

Headshot of Matt Birney
Matt BirneySponsored
RC drill rig in action on Mt Malcolm’s WA tenement.
Camera IconRC drill rig in action on Mt Malcolm’s WA tenement. Credit: File

Recently ASX-listed Mt Malcolm Mines has successfully completed the first five holes of a fifteen-hole 1500 metre reverse circulation drill program at its Dumbarton project near Leonora in WA. Assay results received show encouraging gold in all five holes.

Mt Malcolm says the drill program was designed to validate historical drill intersections over the 500m strike extent at Dumbarton in addition to evaluating any mineralised lode extensions. Initial holes were drilled east of the known lode to test potential further strike extensions and to follow up anomalous historical RAB drilling conducted by North in the 1990’s.

The company says its Dumbarton exploration target model being tested has a similar geological structure and mineralisation style to two nearby historical producers, Richmond Gem, which totalled 8,987oz at an eye-watering 30.4 grams per tonne gold and North Star that produced 20,087ounces at a spectacular 21.7 g/t gold.

The old underground mine lodes strike easterly to south easterly and dip steeply to the south or southwest with gold hosted in narrow quartz veins and stockworks in basalt, surrounded by carbonate and sulphide wall rock alteration.

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Previous tenement holder, Torian Resources, completed a 14-hole program in 2017 that returned a swathe of interesting, shallow results including 3m at 1.96 g/t gold from 31m and 1m grading 2.99 g/t gold from just 36m downhole. However, the previous drilling focused largely on the easy-to-access shallow gold oxide ore with very little drilling extending below depths of 60m.

Significant intercepts to date from the first five RC holes include 6m at 2.86 g/t gold including 2m running a healthy 6.5 g/t gold and 20m at 1.34 g/t gold including 7m containing 2.22 g/t with 1m of this containing a respectable 3.58 g/t gold.

Notably, all five holes were mineralised.

The company says the remaining ten holes will now be completed in coming weeks as access rights were recently granted to a 400m exclusion zone surrounding an abandoned windmill at the western end of the lode.

Mt Malcom’s impressive 274-square-kilometre-tenement holding is peppered with other old gold workings and many historical discoveries within an 80 kilometre radius have yielded millions of ounces in resources over time. After listing on the ASX only last September, the explorer has approached its ground with a winning combination of geophysical surveys and follow up drilling.

The initial focus was the Calypso prospect where it defined an exploration target based on historical data of between 2.9 million tonnes and 3.9 million tonnes at grades ranging between 1.6 g/t and 2.2 g/t. The Calypso prospect has been held in several hands since its discovery by BHP during the 1980’s.

Additionally, results from recent drilling at the Golden Crown prospect returned 4m at 2.99 g/t gold from 28m including 1m at 5.78 g/t from 29m, along with a 3m hit grading a formidable 11.97 g/t gold from 37m, which included a 1m section going a bit over an ounce to the tonne gold.

Given the golden history of the area it is hard to think that modern systematic exploration will not sniff out any gold left behind by the old timers – something that has proven to be the case time and time again in old gold projects that have been brought to life decades after their heyday.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au

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