Dacian Gold has confirmed the Cameron Well prospect as the “third significant gold discovery” at its Mt Morgans gold project near Laverton in Western Australia.
Cameron Well sits between the company’s first two discoveries at Mt Morgans — Westralia and Jupiter. It is 9km from the company’s 2.5 million tonnes a year (Mt/y) carbon-in-leach (CIL) treatment plant, which is now 95 per cent complete and is scheduled to pour first gold next month.
Dacian reported that a 119-hole reverse circulation (RC) program at Cameron Well returned shallow high-grade results of up to 11.7 grams a tonne (g/t) gold over 4m from 71m.
Its other results included 7m at 10.6g/t gold from 19m, 5m at 5.2g/t gold from 49m, and 4m at 5.1g/t gold from 84m. Only 15 of the 119 RC holes drilled by Dacian returned assays less than 0.5g/t, according to the company.
Dacian chairman Rohan Williams said the Cameron Well drilling results amounted to a significant breakthrough for the company’s exploration team.
“RC drilling has now intersected good widths and grades of shallow oxide mineralisation over an area of 1.5km by up to 1km, confirming the mineralisation seen in our original aircore drilling programs laying the foundations for a maiden oxide mineral resource,” Williams said.
“This is a very exciting development given the vast extent of anomalism and mineralisation seen in previous drilling over an area of 6km2.”
Williams said Dacian had commenced a 16,000m RC program targeting a maiden oxide mineral resource at Cameron Well.
“In parallel, we have started collecting feasibility study data to be used in assessing the potential for oxide ore reserves at Cameron Well with the target of announcing a maiden ore reserve by the middle of the year,” he said.
“With the additional discovery of at least four bedrock structures below the extensive oxide gold mineralisation, we are confident that Cameron Well has the potential to become the company’s third significant mining complex at Mt Morgans.”
Dacian expects to pour first gold at Mt Morgans, 25km south-west of Laverton in the Goldfields region, in the next seven weeks.
Its feasibility study for the operation outlined an initial eight-year mine life with average annual production of 186,000 ounces (oz) gold over the first four years.