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During the December quarter, Australian gold and base metal exploration company Musgrave Minerals Ltd (ASX: MGV) made substantial progress in relation to the development of its Cue Project in the Murchison Province of Western Australia, hosting significant gold resources of 441koz. Over the period, the company has made new gold discoveries and has extended the existing resources to grow its gold inventory.
Break of Day
At Break of Day, one of the priority targets of Cue gold project, the company undertook additional extensional drilling during the quarter and successfully intersected high-grade gold outside the current JORC resource boundary.
One of the main highlights for the quarter was drill hole 19MORC037 which intersected a new high-grade section of the Break of Day system whilst testing a revised structural interpretation. The intercept is interpreted as a high-grade ‘link-lode’ structure between the Twilight and Velvet gold lodes, demonstrating:
45m @ 11.8g/t Au from 144m including, 11m @ 14.0g/t Au from 144m and, 23m @ 16.2g/t Au from 166m
The company now requires further drilling to test the strike and plunge of the mineralisation intersected in 19MORC037.
Extensional drilling to the south of Break of Day also intersected 3m @ 7.2g/t Au from 128m (19MORC031) including 1m @ 17.7g/t Au from 128m.
ALSO READ: Musgrave Minerals Resumes RC Drilling at “Break of Day” on Cue Gold Project
Lena
At Lena, the company completed a follow-up RC drilling to confirm the continuity and extent of the high-grade gold shoot. Encouragingly, the company received encouraging results from a number of drill holes.
8 holes were completed for 1,624m with the mineralisation remaining open at depth.
Significant intercepts include:
- 5m @ 12.1g/t Au from 82m down hole (19MORC039), including 2m @ 28.3g/t Au from 82m, within a broader interval of 46m @ 1.5g/t Au to EOH from 82m
- 9m @ 6.4g/t Au from 116m down hole (19MORC041) including 2m @ 22.3g/t Au from 121m
- 3m @ 5.4g/t Au from 113m down hole (19MORC042)
Mainland
At Mainland Prospect area, MGV successfully completed a RC drilling program during the quarter with high-grade gold intersected in three follow-up holes at the Consols Prospect. 14 drill holes were completed for 1,006m.
Significant intersections at Consols include:
- 3m @ 38.2g/t Au from 113m down hole (19MORC018), including 1m @ 102.8g/t Au from 114m
- 2m @ 55.4g/t Au from 52m down hole (19MORC019), including 1m @ 108.3g/t Au from 52m
- 3m @ 5.2g/t Au from 73m down hole (19MORC020)
Evolution JV
At the Lake Austin North Prospect, Diamond drilling continued as part of the Evolution Mining (ASX:EVN) Earn-in and Exploration Joint Venture (signed in September 2019), with assays expected in March 2020. Under the Joint Venture, a large regional aircore drilling program is expected in early February with the focus on defining new gold discoveries under Lake Austin.
Base metal Exploration
With regards to the base metal exploration, Musgrave’s Joint Venture partner Cyprium completed extensional and infill drilling at Hollandaire during the quarter with a highlight infill intercept of:
- 4m @ 14.9% Cu from 84.5m (19HOMET003) in an infill drill hole for metallurgical test work including; 4.5m @ 21.9% Cu, 1.2g/t Au and 46.4g/t Ag from 90.4m
In December 2019, CYM completed RC drilling of extensional targets at Hollandaire and new base metal targets including Eelya South and Rapier.
Cash Position
Musgrave received $1.5 million from EVN for a share subscription linked to the new $18million JV.
At the end of December 2019, the company had $4.1 million in cash. MGV believes that it is well funded to undertake exploration activities as part of the upcoming field season.
Way Ahead
- MGV progressing towards the update of a Lena mineral resource for Q1 2020;
- Diamond drilling on the Evolution JV at Lake Austin North is progressing well, with assay results expected in March;
- On the broader JV area over Lake Austin at Cue, Evolution and Musgrave are planning a large aircore drilling program to further define gold targets for basement drill testing;
- Follow-up drilling of the possible ‘link-lode’ at Break of Day has commenced with assay results expected in March, and if successful will enable a possible resource update in Q2 2020;
- Follow-up RC drilling at Mainland on the Consols target is scheduled to commence in early February 2020.
In the last three months, MGV’s stock has provided a return of 17.95% to its shareholders. The stock is currently trading at $0.092 with a market cap of $37.29 million on 31 January 2020.
