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New Murchison Gold Limited (ASX: NMG) (“NMG” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE), reported in accordance with the JORC Code, for the Crown Prince Deposit (Crown Prince) at the Company’s flagship Garden Gully Gold Project (Garden Gully) near Meekatharra, Western Australia.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Mineral Resource Estimate substantially increased for the Crown Prince Deposit at Garden Gully with a 3G% increase in the Indicated classification estimate to 226koz at 4.6 g/t Au.
- The total Mineral Resource has grown by 16% from the February 2024 estimate, to 27Gkoz at 3.G g/t/Au.
- With 81% (up from 68%) of gold ounces in the Indicated Mineral Resource classification, there is now a strong understanding of the Crown Prince deposits, reflecting enhanced drill density, in some places to 15 m x 15 m grid.
- Mineral Resources are shallow and delineated from surface. Gold mineralisation is open at depth and will be followed up with deeper drilling as the project progresses.
- Crown Prince’s mineralisation is mostly situated within a 300 m x 380 m area. The Mineral Resource Estimate, beneath the mineralised cap rock, shows an average of 1,538 oz of gold per vertical metre between 10 m and 150 m depth.
- The structural corridor, which hosts the Crown Prince deposits, is open to the south and is relatively untested. To the north, recent passive seismic delineated a wide and thick paleochannel (up to 60 m depth). The northern area below the paleochannel may be better explored from underground or base of open pit positions.
- Crown Prince is strategically located in the heart of the prolific Murchison gold district, with close proximity to numerous operating gold mines, processing facilities and other key infrastructure.
- NMG is close to announcing a detailed Feasibility Study (environmental, social, mining, metallurgy, geotechnical, hydrogeological) to support a robust value proposition for mining Crown Prince
Alex Passmore, NMG’s CEO commented: “Following a busy year of exploration and development work in 2024, the Company is delighted to report an increased Crown Prince Mineral Resource Estimate from the additional drilling undertaken.
With increased drilling density, the understanding of the Crown Prince deposit is at a strong confidence level with 81% of the ounces (i.e., 22C,000 oz) now reporting to the Indicated Mineral Resource classification. Pleasingly, the average ounce per vertical metre endowment sits at 1,538 within key areas of our conceptual open pit development.
This resource underpins the detailed feasibility study work which is well advanced to confirm the mining, metallurgical, geotechnical, economic and environmental parameters to develop the Crown Prince Gold Project.
Initial economic optimisation modelling of the Crown Prince resource confirms that there is sufficient grade and tonnage to sustain an open pit mining operation.”
Table 1: Crown Prince MRE Summary November 2024
This MRE (Table 1, Figure 1) was prepared by Cube Consulting, an independent consultant, using geological and mineralisation interpretations prepared by NMG using all available reverse circulation and diamond drillhole data. The updated Crown Prince MRE incorporates all drilling completed and assayed up to October 2024. Over the course of 2024, NMG’s exploration team completed 21,974 m of reverse circulation and diamond drilling within the Crown Prince area.
Following the discovery of the south eastern zone (SEZ) of mineralisation at Crown Prince in 2022, follow up exploration in 2023 and 2024 successfully added resource inventory via infill and extensional drilling.
Multiple phases of drilling were undertaken in 2024 (Table 2) with resulting assays now incorporated into the resource model supporting the November 2024 estimate for Crown Prince.
Mineralisation envelopes at the Main and Northern Zones were also better defined for this model. Additionally, new high-grade lodes were discovered in the Northern Zone contributing to the uplift seen in this updated MRE.
The Crown Prince deposit is hosted within quartz-carbonate veins within altered and sheared mafic units. In the weathered profile, primary mineralisation (fresh rock) has in places been enriched with a supergene overprint. Notably, primary mineralisation persists at depth and remains open (Figure 2). Further drilling will be undertaken to test for extensions.
Table 2: Drilling Summary for Crown Prince
Figure 1: Crown Prince MRE mineralisation wireframes, isometric view looking north.
Figure 2: Isometric view looking north of Crown Prince block model
Material Information Summary – Mineral Resources
Information required by ASX Listing Rule 5.8.1 (summary of technical information pertaining to the Mineral Resource Estimate) is detailed in the following sections.
Click here for the full ASX Release
This article includes content from New Murchison Gold Limited, licensed for the purpose of publishing on Investing News Australia. This article does not constitute financial product advice. It is your responsibility to perform proper due diligence before acting upon any information provided here. Please refer to our full disclaimer here.
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New Murchison Gold Limited
Investor Insight
For investors with an eye on mining stocks, New Murchison Gold (ASX:NMG) presents a unique opportunity. The company's shallow, high-grade Crown Prince gold deposit, significant land package in the prolific Murchison goldfields, and strategic alliance with established Australian gold producer Westgold Resources position it as a noteworthy contender in the Western Australian gold exploration space. As NMG continues to navigate the path to production, its journey is one that astute investors will watch with keen interest.
Overview
Within the heart of Australia's Murchison gold district, a region host to more than 35 Moz gold endowment (historic production and current resources), stands New Murchison Gold, a forward-thinking gold explorer with a clear strategy to maximise shareholder value driven by a highly experienced management team. The company’s value proposition centres on growing and de-risking its shallow, high-grade Crown Prince gold deposit (part of the company’s Garden Gully gold project) and a strategic alliance with established Australian gold producer Westgold Resources (ASX:WGX), offering a clear pathway to production and cash flow generation.
The Westgold alliance has resulted in a binding ore purchase agreement with Big Bell Gold Operations, a wholly owned operating subsidiary of Westgold Resources. The agreement will underpin production from NMG’s Crown Prince deposit in 2025, and will see the company delivering 30 kt to 50 kt of ore to Westgold per month.Key Project
Garden Gully
New Murchison Gold's flagship Garden Gully gold project is located 20 km northwest of Meekatharra, Western Australia. The project boasts a 677 sq km tenement package that covers the Abbotts Greenstone Belt. The project includes granted mining leases and Native Title agreements in place over the Crown Prince, Abbotts and Lydia prospects. Garden Gully is in close proximity to a number of operating gold mines and existing gold processing facilities.
New Murchison Gold has a strong pipeline of exploration and development prospects at Garden Gully, with the most advanced being Crown Prince.
Crown Prince deposit
The Crown Prince deposit has an updated mineral resource estimate of 2.2 Mt at 3.9 g/t gold for 279 koz, which includes an indicated resource estimate of 226 koz at 4.6 g/t Au. (81 percent of the total MRE). The total also includes the maiden resource for the Southeastern Zone (SEZ) of 1 Mt at 5.2 g/t gold for 164 koz (discovered in late 2022).
The resource is shallow, delineated from surface, remains open at depth and along strike, and located within a 300 m x 200 m area demonstrating strong open pit mining potential. There is significant resource growth potential at new mineralised zones at the northeastern end of SEZ and Crown Prince East (350 m from SEZ).
New Murchison Gold also published strong metallurgical performance from advanced test work at Crown Prince with high recovery of gold through gravity and cyanide leach test work, reporting overall gold recovery rates ranging from 98.2 to 99.8 percent.
Recent high-grade gold intersections at SEZ
Westgold Strategic Alliance
New Murchison Gold announced a strategic alliance and $6 million placement with Australian gold producer Westgold Resources.
The Westgold transaction provides a clear pathway to commercialising Crown Prince in a strong gold price environment, validates the quality of the deposit and enables New Murchison Gold to leverage Westgold’s internal resources, intellectual property and infrastructure to accelerate development.
The primary aim of the strategic alliance is to fast track the development of New Murchison Gold’s Crown Prince deposit into production. As part of the strategic alliance, New Murchison Gold and Westgold has entered into a binding ore purchase agreement (OPA) with Westgold subsidiary Big Bell Gold Operations, for gold produced at Crown Prince. Under the agreement, NMG will deliver 30 kt to 50 kt of ore to Westgold per month with no fixed term. Crown Prince is located only 33 km from Westgold’s 1.6 – 1.8 Mtpa Bluebird Mill.
In addition to the OPA, the strategic alliance may also encompass other strategic collaboration initiatives such as access to Westgold’s expertise and infrastructure. Upon completion of the strategic placement, Westgold will be an 18.7-percent shareholder (undiluted basis) and have the right, but not the obligation to a New Murchison Gold board seat and an equity participation right.
Proceeds from the strategic placement and current cash will allow New Murchison Gold to fast track further resource development, project development and mining proposal workstreams at Crown Prince and continue systematic regional exploration across Ora’s commanding 677 sq km tenure.
Major players are increasingly partnering with junior explorers to secure access to high-grade, quality gold resources. New Murchison Gold's collaboration with Westgold epitomises this movement, setting a blueprint for mutual success in the industry.
Key Focus
The near-term focus for New Murchison Gold will be further resource growth and rapidly advancing project development and mining proposal workstreams at Crown Prince:
- Crown Prince Drilling: Further delineating new high-grade mineralised zones at the north-eastern end of SEZ and Crown Prince East (350 metres from SEZ) and resource definition drilling along strike and below 100 metre vertical depth
- Crown Prince Resource: Updated Mineral Resource Estimate expected in September of 2024.
- Crown Prince Development: progress detailed technical programs, preliminary project development and mining proposal workstreams and agree on an ore purchase agreement and other strategic collaboration initiatives with Westgold
- Regional: Continue systematic regional exploration programs across Ora’s commanding 677 sq km tenure package
Management Team
New Murchison Gold is led by a team of experienced professionals with a diverse set of skills and expertise. At the helm of the company's operations is CEO Alex Passmore, a qualified geologist with extensive corporate finance experience to guide New Murchison Gold's strategic plan. The board is chaired by Rick Crabb, with extensive experience in the legal and mining sectors providing invaluable governance and oversight.
Supporting the company's governance structure, Malcolm Randall serves as a non-executive director, bringing a wealth of knowledge from his tenure in the resource sector, including 25 years at Rio Tinto. Frank DeMarte, director and company secretary, contributes over 39 years of mining industry experience in areas of financial management governance and secretarial practice.
The collective experience of New Murchison Gold's board and management is a cornerstone of the company's success, positioning it to capitalise on the opportunities within the Garden Gully project and beyond.
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