‘Spectacular’ is how Chairman Pat Burke described the intersections discovered at its recently acquired Palm Springs Gold Project located in the Kimberley region in Western Australia, when referring to recent drilling results, in the company’s 2020 annual report.

The project contains some spectacular historical intercepts beneath the existing Butchers Creek open pit, including 68 metres at 2.5 g/t gold from 44 metres, 19 metres at 8.8 g/t gold from 56 metres and 50 metres at 3.31 g/t gold from 50 metres.  

“All previous work at Palm Springs indicates the potential exists for a substantial untested gold system that plunges south away from the Butchers Creek open cut and this is what we are focused on unlocking”, Pat Burke said.

“Operations at Butchers Creek only ceased in the 1990s due to the low gold price so we look forward to picking up from where previous operators left off and finding out exactly what this exciting project may hold,” he added. Meteoric will focus on advancing the Butchers Creek deposit towards production with a resource estimate and a scoping study likely to commence in the near-term.

Assuming the study is positive, Mr Tunks said additional programs would be implemented to gain access to the open pit for dewatering and in-pit resource drilling, step-out and infill reverse circulation drilling, and preliminary metallurgical testwork to support ongoing feasibility studies.

Palm Springs is one of two projects currently being explored by Meteroic. The other project is the equally prospective Juruena Gold project in Brazil.

Meteoric commenced drilling for the 2020 Exploration Program at the Juruena Gold Project on 9 June.  Meteoric announced assays in August for the first four holes of its 2020 drilling program at Juruena, with results continuing to grow the areas of known mineralisation. The focus of the drilling was the high‐grade Dona Maria Prospect and the Au‐Cu Crentes Prospect.

The company made the decision early in 2020 that with the COVID-19 virus spreading worldwide, it would be appropriate to diversify the portfolio and seek to acquire an Australian-based project to hedge the company’s geographical risk. The Australian-based project is the proven Palm Springs site acquired in June 2020, from which 52,000oz of gold has been extracted historically from the Butchers Creek mine, in addition to 60 known gold occurrences discovered along a 20-kilometre continuous strike.

While the news flow from the company’s new Australian asset in the months ahead is likely to be positive, the prospectivity that exists in the company’s Brazilian projects is equally high.  At the completion of its maiden drilling programs in 2019, the company reported some extremely favourable  results, including the staggering 20.6 metres at 94.9 g/t strike, which included 3.65 metres at 508.4 g/t gold.

Downtime in Brazil following the completion of the maiden programs was longer than what the company anticipated, due to an extended wet season and the COVID-19 situation. However, the 2020 drilling program re-commenced in June and the company’s focus at Juruena this season is on significantly increasing the size and confidence in the existing gold resource. To achieve this outcome, the program will initially target the Dona Maria prospect, where the 2019 program confirmed continuity of the high-grade old shoot open at depth beneath the existing resource.

Meteoric will begin modelling of the mineralisation as soon as drilling is completed, and remaining core has been processed. This is expected to occur mid- October. Modelling will continue through October and November as final assay results are processed. Importantly, a new Resource Estimate is expected to be announced by the first quarter of 2021.

As Chairman Pat Burke said recently “As we watch the gold price climb higher and higher, it truly is an amazing time to be involved in this wonderful commodity”.

Mr Burke’s confidence seems well-placed given the drilling activities currently underway at the company’s two projects and the early results to date.  

Kerry Daly