Exploration Success at Mt Morgans
High grade gold intercepted along strike from two separate deposits.
Best result was 5m @ 20.80 g/t Au that included 1m @ 94.23 g/t Au.
Results emphasise the low risk, low cost exploration opportunity at Mt Morgans.
Results reconfirm Range’s positive view on the achievement of exploration targets.
Range River Gold Ltd (ASX:RNG) has defined further high grade mineralisation along strike from the Craic gold mine. Recent drilling has confirmed the existence of a discrete high grade mineralised zone to the north of the Morgans North pit.
Managing Director, Rick Watsford commented:
The recent exploration results emphasise the low risk, low cost exploration opportunity at Mt Morgans.
The latest drilling results south and north east of the recently mined Craic pit indicate the potential for discovery of near surface high grade gold mineralisation. Similarly, along strike to the north of the historically mined Morgans North pit, the potential of repeat shallow gold mineralisation has been confirmed.
The best result was 5m @ 20.80 g/t Au that included 1m @ 94.23 g/t Au at Morgans North. This result confirmed continuity of a zone identified by historical drilling. That zone had a reported result of 3m @ 75.8g/t Au including 1m @ 217g/t Au.
Both these areas offer potential to add to the inventory of open pit resources and extend the current two year open pit mining program.
These results add further weight to Company’s view that there is significant potential to increase the Mineral Resource base at Mt Morgan. An initial target Mineral Resource of 1.5 million oz Au has been set. Achievement of this target will be the next major step in the plan to achieve 100,000 oz Au pa production within five years.
RangeRiverGold’s development plan for Mt Morgans was initially based upon the open pit mining of Craic and open pit cutback of Ramornie gold mines. Following the recent completion of open pit mining at Craic the plan is to go underground at Craic and then re-open the Transvaal and Westralia underground gold mines.
During the period of initial open pit mining the plan was to undertake a parallel exploration program to identify further open pit resources and examine opportunities for cut backs of the nine previously mined open pits.
These plans have been successfully implemented.
The successful discovery and commencement of production of Ramornie North and Sarah gold mines is a highly significant event. The Mt Morgan’s team identified the opportunity, drilled the resource and brought these two pits into production. This is the first production to occur from RNG’s fresh look at the exploration opportunities at Mt Morgans.
Through re-evaluation of previously mined deposits and the newly discovered deposits the Company has increased total Mineral Resources from 207,000 oz Au to 869,000 oz Au in 18 months.
The increase in Mineral Resources underpins a production plan to deliver 50,000 oz Au pa for seven years (see Figure 1). The new production plan is the initial step in the strategy to increase production to 100,000 oz Au pa within five years.
Re-evaluation of other previously mined deposits is being undertaken. This re-evaluation and brown-fields exploration success such as Ramornie North and Sarah are expected to deliver the target of 1.5Moz Au in 2011/12 (see Figure 2).
Achievement of this target Mineral resource will be the next major step in the plan to grow the production plan to 100,000 oz Au pa within five years.
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