Red 5 Limited’s (ASX: RED) confidence in the potential to expand the its King of the Hills (KOTH) gold operation in WA had received a further boost following the receipt of final results from the assaying of historical diamond drill core.
The company said the results continue to reinforce the potential to expand the existing 3.1Moz Mineral Resource estimate and support the potential for a bulk mining opportunity at KOTH.
Red 5 holds a large inventory of drill core from KOTH that was not sampled by previous owners. Since the start of the historical drill core sampling programme, a total of 35,959 samples from 31,660 metres of previously non-assayed core from 518 historical drill holes have been completed.
Since the previous update in late October 2019, Red 5 has received assay results from a further 16,222 samples from 14,080 metres of historical drill core collected from 246 drill holes completed between 2008 and 2016. Of these latest results, 13.8% samples assayed ≥0.3g/t Au, 3.5% samples assayed ≥1.0g/t Au, and 0.3% samples assayed ≥10g/t Au.
Managing Director, Mark Williams, pointed out that non assayed intervals of core are currently assigned a value of 0.005g/t (effectively zero grade) within the 3.1Moz Mineral Resource model.
However, Red 5 believes the ongoing return of assay results above the cut-off grade demonstrates that many of these previously unassayed lengths of core contain significant gold mineralisation, with the capacity to add further contained gold to the resource.
An updated Mineral Resource estimate for KOTH is now expected in late March 2020, earlier than originally forecast. This updated Mineral Resource will, in turn, underpin the ongoing Final Feasibility Study for an integrated bulk open pit and underground mining operation at KOTH, which is scheduled for completion in the September 2020 Quarter.
“The initiative to assay our extensive inventory of historical drill core has been a great entrepreneurial, value-adding initiative from our team,” Mr Williams said.
The results have returned a large number of assays well above the Resource cut-off grade. This programme continues to enhance our confidence in the King of the Hills geology and our strategy to develop a bulk mining operation.
“Together with the receipt of ongoing assays from our underground drilling program, these results will feed into an updated Mineral Resource estimate for King of the Hills, which we are looking to bring forward and deliver later this month.
“The updated Mineral Resource will form the basis for the Final Feasibility Study for an integrated bulk open pit and underground mining operation, scheduled for completion in the September 2020 Quarter,” he said.
