Rumble Resources has drill spinning in quest to grow Western Queen gold resource
Tue Nov 19 2024
Rumble Resources Ltd (ASX:RTR, OTC:RTRFF) has kicked off a 20,000-metre drilling campaign at the Western Queen Gold-Tungsten Project in Western Australia targeting high-grade gold and an increase to the 288,600-ounce resource.
Specifically, the program of up to 15,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) and 5,000 metres of diamond drilling by Topdrill in a drill for equity arrangement will target the discovery of new high-grade plunging shoots.
The company believes it has the potential to grow resources beneath the Western Queen South (WQS), Princess, Marquis, Duke and Western Queen Central (WQC) deposits.
It comes after Rumble recently increased gold resources at Western Queen by 76% to 4.42 million tonnes at 2.02 g/t with mineralisation open along strike and at depth within the main 2.7-kilometre strike zone.
Possibility to increase inventory
Rumble managing director and CEO Peter Harold said: “Following the recent two tranche placement to raise $7.1 million we are delighted that Topdrill has commenced drilling at Western Queen.
"With the support of Bain Resources and their associates together with new and existing shareholders who participated in the placements we are now well funded and can aggressively explore Western Queen.
"Given the previous high-grade production and the existing resources of close to 300,000 ounces and the limited drilling below most of the known deposits there is a strong possibility this drill program could result in an increase in the Western Queen gold inventory.”
Two phases
The drilling program will be divided into two phases with the first expected to be completed this year and consisting of 7,500 metres of RC and 1,250 metres of diamond drilling.
Rumble expects to begin the second phase early in the new year and complete it during the first quarter of 2025. This will have the benefit of the first phase results to further assist with targeting extensions to high-grade mineralisation.
Western Queen is within a 100-kilometre radius of three gold processing plants. The closest is at Dalgaranga, 48 kilometres by road from Western Queen, which has a capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum and is currently on care and maintenance.
The Checkers plant at Mt Magnet has annual capacity of 1.9 million tonnes and the Tuckabianna plant, near Cue, has capacity of 1.2 million tonnes. These two operating plants provide the potential for a near-term toll-treating option for Western Queen ore.
The key focus of this drilling is to target high-grade down plunge extensions to previously intercepted mineralisation along the main 2.7-kilometre project area within the granted mining leases, ML59/45 and ML59/208.
It will be focused primarily beneath the WQS, Princess, Duke and WQC deposits and is anticipated to form the basis for a further mineral resource upgrade in 2025.
Importantly, the program has been designed to target high-grade gold and the recently discovered tungsten mineralisation.
The Princess deposit area, between WQS and WQC open pit, has seen extensive historical small-scale shaft mining, while only sparse exploration drilling has occurred below the upper oxide-transitional zone.
Previous exploration drilling returned high-grade gold intercepts including 11 metres at 6.11 g/t gold from 52 metres, 2 metres at 40.37 g/t from 4 metres and 3 metres at 19.90 g/t from 8 metres.
At WQS, immediately below the WQS resource, multiple high-grade lodes exist which are open at depth.
Previous exploration drilling at WQS returned high-grade intersections including 4 metres at 49.73 g/t from 134 metres and 5 metres at 38.76 g/t from 193 metres.
At WQC beneath the WQC open pit and underground workings, multiple high-grade lodes exist which remain open and untested at depth.
Previous exploration drilling at WQC returned high-grade intersections including 6.4 metres at 36.09 g/t from 305.7 metres, 6 metres at 34.24 g/t from 354 metres and 5 metres at 22.00 g/t from 280 metres.
High-grade gold mineralisation at Duke, below the Duke deposit and immediately north of WQC, is open at depth with previous results including 8 metres at 26.27 g/t from 14 metres, 6 metres at 25.87 g/t from 48 metres, 7 metres at 60.60 g/t from 70 metres and 6 metres at 37.34 g/t from 50 metres.
Below the Marquis prospect, only 500 metres south of WQS, gold has been intercepted in wide-spaced drilling and is open at depth. Results from previous exploration drilling include 6 metres at 4.30 g/t from 108 metres and 4 metres at 5.67 g/t from 70 metres.
The drill for equity arrangement with Topdrill allows the company, at its election, to satisfy up to 50% of invoiced drilling costs apportioned to actual drilling activities for each monthly invoice through the issue of ordinary shares in the company, up to a maximum of $1 million.
The issue price is to be determined by the 5-day volume weighted average price (VWAP) that the company’s shares trade at immediately preceding each invoice date.
Shares issued under the drill for equity agreement are to be voluntarily escrowed for six months from the invoice date.
Source: https://www.proactiveinvestors.com/