Monument Mining is pleased to announce that it has commenced initial exploration programs at the Murchison Gold Project in Western Australia through its wholly owned Australia subsidiary Monument Murchison Pty Ltd.
The objective of the initial exploration programs is to study the shallow, near surface open cut mineralisation at the Alliance open pit (the "Alliance") with the intention of providing commercial outcomes within a twelve to eighteen month time frame. The Alliance deposit is one of several historic open pits in the southern area of the Burnakura property of the Murchison Gold Project.
The study will aim to confirm the historical resource at the Alliance open pit and improve geological confidence to potentially add mineral resources for mine planning purposes. The proposed exploration programmes consists of infill, extensional and resource definition drilling, metallurgical test work and geotechnical evaluation budgeted at AUD$ 2.95 million. Environmental permitting is currently underway to enable this work to be carried out.
While the Company awaits these approvals from the Department of Mines and Petroleum, compilation and validation of the resource database information is being conducted along with exploration target planning based on the extensive drilling and geochemical database.
Metallurgical test work will be conducted on PQ diamond core samples to establish recoveries and streamline process flow designs for the Burnakura CIL/CIP plant for efficient production outcomes. Test work will also commence on heap leach viability of selected drill core samples to confirm the reliability of test work completed previously.
Regional exploration has also been planned following the initial exploration programs for the Murchison Gold Project. It will include broad based geochemical investigations under sheet wash cover typical of the region, as well as initial exploration RC drilling at Gabanintha, which will follow-up the gold and copper intersections drilled by the previous owner.
The mineral resource, metallurgical and process engineering information will provide the inputs into mining engineering and optimisation studies for mine design.
The resource drilling will also validate the previous drilling in order to upgrade the mineral resource from an historical estimate to a NI43-101 compliant Mineral Resource. The Company will endeavour to provide updates as the relevant information becomes available.
Monument has engaged the services of Lisa Wells , consultant from MLM Drilling, as the Exploration Manager for the Murchison Gold Project. Lisa has nineteen (19) year experience as a geologist with previous positions held including Exploration Manager and Technical Director of ASX listed companies.
The Company has also appointed a registered manager in charge of maintaining and managing the Murchison camp and its mine facilities.
Background of the Murchison Gold Project
The Murchison Gold Project consists of both the Burnakura and Gabanintha properties, located near Meekathara in the Murchison Mineral Field, approximately 765 kilometers North of Perth.
A historical resource as at October 2013 of 6.41 million tonnes at an average of grade of 2.7 g/t containing 546,000 ounces of gold within a number of previously operated open pits and an underground mine, which was determined by BM Geological Services in the report Murchison Gold Project: Burnakura and Gabanintha resource inventory ( December 2013 ).
The Company believes that the quality of the data supporting the resources meets industry standards. The historical resources have been reported in line with the JORC guidelines, and resource confidence categories and the reliability of the estimate are consistent with this standard. Monument considers this historical resource estimate to be relevant to its ongoing review of the Murchison Gold Project.