High-Grade Gold Zone at Lower East Lode
Perth, May 10, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Wiluna Mining Corporation Limited (
ASX:WMC) (NZ3:FRA) (WMXCF:OTCMKTS) is pleased to announce the confirmation of high-grade sulphide mineralisation in the first of eight holes testing down-plunge extensions of the East and West Lodes, which historically were the main producing lodes at Wiluna with a combined endowment of 3.5Moz @ 5.4g/t.
The Company's 40,000m discovery drilling campaign will test nine large-scale targets for new high-grade sulphide shoots 'under the headframe' at Wiluna. Drilling is currently underway at East and West Lode Lower, Bulletin North and Squib (Figure 1*).
High-grade >5g/t shoot discoveries are targeted to enhance the early years of the current mining plan with the intention of increasing the underground ore grade and to grow gold production.
Wiluna Mining Executive Chair, Milan Jerkovic, commented:
"This outstanding intercept confirms our strategy to discover new high-grade sulphide shoots as we test multiple targets across the Wiluna Mining Centre, particularly in the South Mine Area but right across our very large gold system at Wiluna, as we look to expand beyond the current mining activity in the North Mine Area.
After 125 years of historical mining, the Wiluna orebody continues to deliver exciting new discoveries; this new intersection is well below an area that was last mined almost 70 years ago. The intersection is close to existing modern access via the Golden Age and Calais zones, so it's a relatively simple and low-cost exercise to develop across to drill further with the intention to rapidly grow resources and reserves".
East & West Lode Lower Targets
The East and West Lodes were historically mined to 600m depth during the 1930's and 1940's and produced 1.4Moz @ 7.6g/t, until production ceased at the end of World War II. When combined with the current Mineral Resource, the East & West Lodes have a large pre-production endowment of approximately 3.5Moz @ 5.4g/t. A small number of wide-spaced holes were drilled below the lodes in the late 1990's, which confirmed the continuity of the gold structures, although high-grade shoot trends were not adequately tested in the previous program (Figure 1 & 2*).
The East & West Lode discovery program tests for a repeat of the East and West Lode endowment, in a large target area of approximately 1,000m strike extent and between 800m to 1,500m below surface (Figure 2), in an area that has been sparsely tested despite the large-scale and high-grade past production. Holes are designed to intersect modelled high-grade shoot locations on both the East and West Lode structures, which are sub-parallel structures less than 200m apart (Figure 3 & 4*).
Outstanding assays received from the first hole in the program confirm the continuity of high-grade mineralisation approximately 200m down-plunge of the limit of historical mining and the current Mineral Resource envelope (Figure 2*). Intercepts include:
WUDD0077: 9.40m @ 4.87g/t including 6.60m @ 6.22g/t, and 1.80m @ 9.74 g/t.
WUDD0077 also intersected the West Lode at the modelled position with trace amounts of sulphides, shearing and alteration indicative of low-tenor gold mineralisation with assays pending (Figure 3*). Importantly, the West Lode intersection is approximately 700m below the limit of historical drilling and the current Mineral Resource, which confirms the large-scale continuity of the West Lode structure.
The Company's geological team has developed a model that predicts the location of high-grade sulphide shoots in a repeated pattern controlled by the junction of steeply east-dipping mineralised structures with rock unit boundaries. Additional subtle north-plunging and south-plunging high-grade shoots are aligned with pre-mineralisation structural trends. The East and West Lode structures are variably mineralised between the shoots and are prospective for further discoveries to be made along strike to the north and south, and at depth.
In addition, first-pass seismic traverse lines acquired during 2021 showed that gold structures extend well below and beyond the current Mineral Resource limits, supporting discovery drill hole targeting (see ASX report dated 6 May 2021).
*To view tables and figures, please visit:
https://abnnewswire.net/lnk/QV035ZD9
About Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd
Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMC) (OTCMKTS:WMXCF) is a Perth based, ASX listed gold mining company that controls over 1,600 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton in the Northern Goldfields of WA. The Yilgarn Craton has a historic and current gold endowment of over 380 million ounces, making it one of most prolific gold regions in the world. The Company owns 100% of the Wiluna Gold Operation which has a defined resource of 8.04M oz at 1.67 g/t au. In May 2019, a new highly skilled management team took control of the Company with a clear plan to leverage the Wiluna Gold Operation's multi-million-ounce potential.
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