Highlights:

• Musgrave’s Cue Gold Project resource base soars 41% to around 927koz of gold
• White Heat‑Mosaic and Big Sky contribute significantly to the ballooned resource base
• Musgrave anticipates Amarillo and Waratah to deliver in the near future.

Musgrave Minerals Limited (ASX: MGV) wrapped up a successful FY2022. The company is gung-ho about its Cue Gold Project, located in Murchison Province, Western Australia. The company expects to ride on the back of the identification of new mineralised gold zones at the Amarillo and Waratah prospects, along with a boost in maiden mineral resource estimates (MREs) at the White Heat-Mosaic and Big Sky prospects.

About the Cue Gold Project

Source: Company update

MGV’s Cue Gold Project in the gold-rich Murchison region, Western Australia, has been a place of discoveries. Successful exploration programs at Cue continue to extend their impressive resource base.

June Quarter: How far has the company come vis-à-vis its Cue project?

Source: Company update

As per the updated MRE rolled out in the June Quarter:

• Musgrave improved the resource base of Cue by 41% to an estimated 927koz of gold and completed over 100,000m of drilling during the year.
• Total Indicated and Inferred JORC Mineral Resources at the project are 12.3Mt @ 2.3g/t Au for 927koz of gold (a 44% growth in Indicated Resources to 435,000 ounces gold).
• Near-surface, high-grade mineral resources on Break of Day Trend grew to [email protected]/t Au for 327koz of contained gold.

In the abovementioned figure of 927koz, the contribution of maiden MREs at White Heat‑Mosaic and Big Sky are as follows:

• White Heat-Mosaic: 185kt @ 11.0g/t Au for 65,000oz gold (Indicated and Inferred)
• Big Sky: 4.65Mt @ 1.2g/t Au for 173,000oz gold (Indicated and Inferred)

White Heat-Mosaic Deposit

This mineral deposit is located only 300m south of Break of Day, and it extends over a cumulative strike length of over 150m. The deposit contains individual gold lodes drill tested to various depths, and the deepest resource lode is estimated at a vertical depth of 200m.

Source: Company update

Interestingly, 80% of the resource lies in the higher coincidence indicated category, and high-grade mineralisation begins at less than 10m below the surface.

Big Sky Deposit

This deposit is located on a shear trend southwest of Break of Day, extending over a total length of over2.6km. Upon interpretation, mineralisation has been estimated to have a maximum depth of 225m. However, for most parts of the deposit, mineralisation has been approximately 100m upon drilling.

Source: Company update

Twenty-eight per cent of the resource lies in the higher coinci­dence indicated category, while in some areas, mineralisation begins at less than 2m below the surface.

Other Cue deposits

To comply with JORC 2012 reporting standards, MREs were updated for many satellite deposits, including Gilt Edge, Jasper Queen, Leviticus, Numbers, and Rapier South. However, no considerable material changes were made to the total ounces in these resource estimates.

A small oxide gold resource was added to Hollandaire, which sits as a gold cap to the Hollandaire copper-gold deposit.

As already mentioned, gold mineralisation was also discovered at the Amarillo and Waratah prospects, for which further drilling is on the cards to include in future MRE updates.

For deposits at Break of Day and Lena, prefeasibility level studies are in progress. The company has appointed Anthony Buckingham as general manager.  This development is expected to extend the company’s studies and add new gold resources at White Heat-Mosaic and Big Sky.

This updated MRE is significant since it underpins the company’s economic modelling for ongoing development studies related to the said project while establishing a roadmap to production.

Cue going strong

Brimming with confidence in the light of continued exploration success at Cue, the company anticipates its resource base to grow even more in the near future:

White Heat and Big Sky set to contribute more

Graham Ascough, a non-executive chairman, stresses that for White Heat and Big Sky, only the top 100 to 160m has been the focus of drilling thus far. However, he believes both can contribute further to the company’s resource growth by means of infi­ll and extensional drilling programs, which are currently in progress.

Amarillo and Waratah not lagging either

Discoveries that have not been yet stated in the MRE include Amarillo and Waratah. Additionally, regional drilling programs have been persistent in identifying more targets for follow-up on the company’s extensive Cue land holding, with a view to identifying new resources and expanding the outstanding resource base of the company.

About the largely underexplored Lake Austin Prospect

Exploration on the Lake Austin area comes under Musgrave’s earn-in and exploration joint venture with Evolution Mining Limited (ASX:EVN). Drilling results have identified many new gold lodes at West Island, alongside many highly promising regional targets that call for further drill testing. EVN, currently operating the joint venture, is looking forward to a considerable amount of basement drilling to be completed in the first half of FY 2023.

Other non-Cue projects of the company

Mt Magnet South Project

As per the annual report, the Mt Magnet South Project, still in its incipient stage, is expected to deliver multiple targets to integrate with the Cue Project. As of now, a sale and purchase agreement has been signed between Musgrave Exploration Pty Ltd (MGV’s wholly owned subsidiary) and Eastern Goldfields Exploration Pty Ltd to obtain a 100% interest in 297sqkm of the tenure.

Musgrave province

Currently, Musgrave is holding tenement applications in South Australia’s central Musgrave province. However, no field activity has been wrapped up by the company on these projects in FY22.

Sustainability review a pathway to sustainable gold mining

Recently, the company conducted an external consultant-led sustainability review to merge its environmental, social and governance considerations with its decision-making process. This will be crucial toward achieving exploration success in a safe and responsible manner while approaching its target of setting up a commercially successful gold mining business.

Of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals, Musgrave has recognised the importance of nine goals to be incorporated into the company’s future activities to achieve sustainable growth.

Source: Company update

MGV’s stock last traded at AU$0.230 apiece as on 12 October 2022.