Auteco Minerals Ltd(ASX: AUT) has received strong drilling results outside the current Resource, paving the way for an increase in the Independent JORC 2012 Inferred Resource at the Pickle Crow Gold Project in Ontario, Canada of 1Moz @ 11.3 g/t gold.
The company is currently undertaking a 45,000m drill programme with the ultimate objective of delivering an updated Mineral Resource estimate in the June quarter, 2021. A small portion of the budget ($3 million) has been allocated to complete preliminary testing of the high-quality exploration targets within the 320 sq. km of regional tenure held by Auteco in the greater Pickle Crow camp.
To date, a total of 84 diamond drill holes for 19,423m have been completed with assay results returned or partially returned for 25 holes. Auteco expects to receive the balance of the assay results in the first quarter 2021.
There are currently three surface diamond drill rigs on site. The drilling thus far has focused exclusively on near mine extensions and discovery of mineralised structures outside of the reported Resource.
At the completion of phase 2 work programme (near mine extensions), activities will transition to infill drilling and Resource definition, providing sufficient data density to update the Mineral Resource estimate.
Recent exploration drilling has resulted in multiple new high-grade gold discoveries and the definition of areas of resource extension. Mineralisation remains open in all directions on all target areas and work will now be focused on defining high-grade gold shoots within the mineralised envelopes and bringing them into the Inferred Resource category.
Executive Chairman, Ray Shorrocks, said the current phase of drilling has successfully intersected extensions to known mineralised structures in addition to the discovery of previously undefined mineralisation, all of which are outside of the reported 1Moz Resource. Results include:
These latest results provide more evidence of the strong potential to grow the 1Moz Resource at Pickle Crow,” Mr Shorrocks said.
“This is supported by the definition of multiple new areas of high-grade quartz vein-hosted mineralisation with excellent geological continuity and multiple instances of visible gold. This is the same style of mineralisation from which the mine produced 1.5Moz at 16 g/t historically.
“The width and high grade of recently returned results, coupled with their shallow nature reinforces the numerous resource growth opportunities at the project. These results are supported by numerous high grade historical drill intercepts outside of current resources which will help to fast-track the definition of the new areas towards resource classification.
“With three drill rigs currently operating and given the strength of the latest results, we remain on track to meet our intended Resource upgrade in the June quarter of 2021.”
Exploration efforts are currently focused on the identification of additional structures with the potential to host additional Resources within the top 500m from surface and within the Core Trend; host to the current Inferred Resource and historical mining and infrastructure. Numerous compelling drill targets based on historic drilling have been identified in close proximity to existing infrastructure. Recent drilling completed by Auteco continues to validate the historic information in addition to identifying additional mineralised structures.
Auteco plans to provide an updated Mineral Resource estimate prepared in accordance with the JORC Code (2012 Edition) in the June quarter of 2021.