Turnberry is located at the northernmost end of the north-south trending Archaean Gnaweeda Greenstone Belt (GGB), a narrow belt of Archaean volcano-sedimentary rocks
Turnberry Independent Mineral Resource increases. (Credit: Dominik Vanyi on Unsplash)
Meeka Metals Limited (“Meeka” or “the Company”) is pleased to report an updated Mineral Resource for the shallow, high-grade Turnberry deposit, part of the 100% owned Murchison Gold Project. The Turnberry Mineral Resource now stands at 10.6Mt @ 2.0g/t Au for 685k ounces.
The Mineral Resource was prepared by independent technical experts RSC, and is based
on 80,949m of drilling, including 5,952m of diamond drilling. 16,213m of this drilling,
including 2,065m of diamond drilling, has been completed to 30 October 2022 (the cut-off date for inclusion) since the previous Turnberry Mineral Resource update in the June 2021 quarter. A further 21 drill holes (1,810m) were completed at Turnberry post the drilling cutoff date and were not included in this Mineral Resource update, however, will be included in subsequent updates.
Turnberry is a shallow, high-grade deposit with no prior mining depletion. The Turnberry Mineral Resource averages ~1,600 ounces per vertical metre from surface to a depth of
200m where the density of drilling reduces. The deposit has a strike length of 1.7km and
remains open to the north, south and at depth. The potential for underground mining
beyond an initial open pit is considered likely.
The near surface open pit constrained Mineral Resource is largely drilled out with ~20m by ~20m hole spacing and 64% is reported in the Indicated classification. This shallow highgrade oxide gold will form an important part of the Pre-feasibility Study, which is targeted for release in the June 2023 quarter.
Commenting on the Mineral Resource update, Meeka’s Managing Director Tim
Davidson said: “Drilling over the last 18 months has targeted the high-grade core of
Turnberry, in addition to expanding the shallow oxide gold on the western flank. The
majority of the open pit constrained Mineral Resource is now in Indicated as we move
toward mining.
In addition, the open pit optimisation used to constrain the Mineral Resource reflects
recent mining cost escalation in the industry. This approach has reduced the size of the
open pit portion of the Mineral Resource, which now stands at ~330koz.
Cost escalation was mitigated somewhat through the addition of shallow oxide gold on
the western flank which falls within the pit optimisation. Planning is in place to further
extend the strike of this shallow gold in 2023.
Extensional drilling also commenced on the eastern flank in December 2022 (assays
pending) where an opportunity to further grow the shallow oxide gold at Turnberry was identified.
Shallow, high-grade oxide mineralisation added to the Mineral Resource through this
drilling will continue to have a meaningful impact on the outcome of the upcoming Prefeasibility Study expected in June 2023.”
Source: Company Press Release