Summary
- Middle Island has announced further high-grade drill intercepts of 4m @ 50.5g/t and 9m @ 5.41g/t Au from an initial Phase 2 RC drilling undertaken at the new Ridge deposit.
- The Company had previously declared a single high-grade initial drill intercept of 4m @ 99.5g/t Au recently.
- The Company is continuing with Phase 2 drilling campaign as scheduled, with ~12,000m of drilling completed, while oxide diamond coring of Sandstone’s new satellite deposits is expected to start next week.
- MDI is fully funded and debt-free to finalise the continuing aggressive drilling campaign and study work.
Pursuing vigorously on its path to production at Sandstone gold project, Middle Island Resources Limited (ASX:MDI) reported further high-grade drill intercepts from an initial Phase 2 RC drilling at the new Ridge deposit.
The Australian gold explorer has announced high-quality intercepts of 4m @ 50.5g/t and 9m @ 5.41g/t Au from two infill RC holes drilled towards the southern end of Sandstone’s latest Ridge satellite deposit.
Recently, the Company also declared a very high-grade initial drill intercept of 4m @ 99.5g/t Au (from 13m depth), including 1m @ 390g/t Au from the most northerly hole finalised so far (MSRC530) at Ridge deposit.
Middle Island is undertaking Phase 2 RC program at Sandstone, entirely focussed on open pit targets, to infill and extend existing and recently defined deposits from 2020 Phase 1 drilling program. The Company’s key objective is to classify its gold Mineral Resources to an Indicated category.
High-Grade Results from Ridge Deposit
Middle Island has received assay results from an additional two RC drill intercepts from MSRC544 and MSRC545 drill holes at the new Ridge satellite deposit.
The new hole MSRC544 returned a shallow intercept of 4m at 50.5g/t Au (from 3m), including 1m at 198g/t Au (from 4m) while MSRC545 included a confirmatory intercept of 9m @ 5.41g/t Au (from 22m depth). MSRC545 was drilled 20m directly behind and down dip from MSRC544.
According to Middle Island, the new intercept in MSRC544 may partly reflect gold in nugget form as it is derived from a very shallow depth of 3-7m while intercept in MSRC545 suggests otherwise with grades reporting over a 4m interval and the confirmatory down-dip from MSRC544.
The Company notified that the new intercepts closely follow a bonanza grade result reported last week from MSRC530. Besides, the high-grade intercepts in the two new holes sit at shallow depths within northeast dipping units of BIF (banded iron formation), containing part of the Shillington BIF package.
Forward Plans
While Middle Island has completed the infill, extension and verification drilling at Ridge deposit prior to preparing a Mineral Resource estimate, some assays are still pending. So, it is not yet possible for the Company to ascertain the full significance of these initial high-quality intersections.
The Company expects to estimate Mineral Resources prior to consideration as Ore Reserves in a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) update scheduled for the September quarter 2020. The Company is progressing well with the Sandstone Feasibility Study update, in parallel to its ongoing Phase 2 drilling campaign.
The Phase 2 drilling campaign is continuing on schedule, with ~12,000m of drilling completed, while oxide diamond coring of Sandstone’s new satellite deposits is likely to begin next week.
Promising results attained from the ongoing Phase 2 drilling campaign bolster faith in Middle Island’s ability to produce notional Indicated Mineral Resources for insertion in the updated feasibility study. Moreover, the Company is fully funded and debt-free to finalise the ongoing aggressive drilling campaign and study work.
MDI last traded at $0.022 on 2nd July 2020.
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