Lion One Metals Limited (ASX: LLO) has obtained new high-grade gold results from underground sampling and announces the expansion of gold mineralisation at its 100% owned Tuvatu Alkaline Gold Project in Fiji.
Sampling along the walls of the URW1a and URW1b mine drives at Tuvatu has returned high-grade gold results, indicating that the gold mineralization associated with both the URW1a and URW1b lodes extends beyond the walls of the current drives.
The grades associated with the URW1a and URW1b lodes have been found to be higher than anticipated and the results reported here indicate that the high-grade gold mineralization associated with these lodes is also greater in width than that which was estimated from drilling.
We’re very pleased with the results from our wall sampling program. The program was initiated following the identification of coarse visible gold in veinlets in the walls of both the URW1a and URW1b mine drives,” Chairman and CEO, Walter Berukoff, said.
“The results indicate that there is significant gold mineralization present in the walls of both drives, and that the mineable width of both drives is therefore considerably wider than we expected based on drill results. An investigation is now underway to determine how far this additional gold mineralization extends into the walls of both drives and how much additional high- grade material we can expect to mine from these lodes.
“Mining is ongoing in both drives and we’re hopeful that this additional gold mineralization will provide a further boost to our growing stockpile in advance of our plant commissioning later this year.”
Mining of the URW1 lodes has been ongoing since May 18th, 2023 and is being conducted through the use of airleg mining. Airleg mining is a very precise method of mining which is ideal for narrow vein mineralization such as at Tuvatu as it enables the extraction of the vein material with minimal dilution.
As mining progressed along the URW1a and URW1b lodes, gold mineralisation was identified within narrow stockwork-style veining in the walls of both drives following extraction.
A systematic programme of wall sampling was therefore initiated to determine the extent of gold mineralization along the walls.
An investigation is underway to determine how far mineralisation extends beyond the current walls of the drives and how much additional material can be mined from these drives. Information gained from this investigation will then be applied to adapt the mine design for these lodes moving forward.