M3 Mining Limited (ASX: M3M) has drilled significant gold mineralisation at the Jump Up 1 Prospect from the company’s first aircore (AC) drilling programme at the Edjudina Gold Project, 150km northeast of Kalgoorlie, WA.
Our maiden drilling programme completed in September at Edjudina was successful in uncovering primary gold mineralisation that warrants follow up RC drill testing,” Executive Director, Simon Eley, said.
“The intersections from the Jump Up 1 prospect indicate a mineralised system that is open along strike and at depth. The company is actively planning a follow up RC programme which will provide us with a greater understanding on the style of mineralisation at Jump Up.”
A total of 7,826m of AC drilling was completed by Raglan Drilling in September 2022. A total of 119 holes were drilled across six of the nine prospects at the Project. The programme was successful in uncovering and confirming primary gold mineralisation that warrants further work.
The prospects drilled have a much deeper weathering profile than previously thought. The average hole depth was 66m, eleven holes exceeded 100m depth with the deepest hole drilled being 145m. The deeper weathering profile is encouraging for a geological system that has undergone strong alteration and deformation; an indicator for a potentially large mineralised system.
All holes were inclined and drilled until drill-bit refusal. Hole spacing varied from 25m – 80m and line spacing varied from 60m – 200m. Sampling for gold was undertaken in four metre composites downhole, except at the bottom of each hole where variable composites were taken to achieve a one metre sample for the last metre drilled. The bottom of hole sample was assayed for gold in addition to 60-element analysis in order to provide the company with a detailed geochemical dataset of the drilled prospects.
The best results from this initial drilling programme were recorded at the Jump Up 1 prospect, where drilling was designed to follow-up a historical intercept of 2m at 5.69 g/t Au from 37m in drill hole JURB093.
Results confirmed the historical intercept and outlined the presence of a 1.2km long northwest striking gold system that is open both along strike and depth.
The Jump Up 1 prospect contains a sequence of NW-SE striking volcanic and intrusive mafic units to the east with a narrow metasedimentary unit to the west intercepted on the two northernmost lines.
Mineralisation occurs within a sheared mafic volcanic unit, interpreted to be a basalt. The higher-grade zones are associated with chlorite-carbonate-sericite alteration and minor disseminated sulphides. There is also a lesser zone of mineralisation associated with the contact between the basalt and the metasedimentary unit. This style of mineralisation was encountered in all four drill lines at Jump Up 1 which increases the confidence of success in further drill programs.
In addition to current and historical high-grade intercepts at Jump Up 1, there has also been extensive soil sampling completed in the past by other parties around Jump Up 1 that indicate an additional 2.5km gold-in-soils anomaly continues to the southeast along strike from where the recent drilling was completed.
Three further prospects (Jump Up 2 to 4) were initially planned to be drilled, however, due to limited availability of the AC drilling rig these were not drilled in the September program. These prospects are associated with historical soil anomalies and will be drilled in the next phase of AC drilling at Edjudina.
Next Steps
The company is planning follow-up RC and AC drilling – the Jump Up 1 prospect being the number one priority. RC drilling will be able to determine the continuation of mineralisation at depth which AC drilling was not able to discern due to drill depth limitations. It will also provide the company with a greater detail of structural knowledge on the trend of mineralisation.
AC drilling will test the remaining prospects at Jump Up that were not drilled in the previous program due to rig availability. These prospects are a high priority for the company as they are each centred over untested historical gold-in-soils anomalies and could represent zones of new mineralisation. AC drilling will also test extensions to mineralisation at Jump Up 1 to the southeast along a historically sampled 2.5km gold-in-soil anomaly.
The follow-up drill programmes are planned for the new year and is subject to DMIRS approval.