EXPLORATION & DEVELOPMENT

The big (drilling) hits of 2019

Very few Aussie projects made the grade

Staff reporter
Core shed at Macassa in Canada

Core shed at Macassa in Canada

While Kirkland Lake Gold owes much of its blockbuster share price gains to the Fosterville gold mine in Victoria, a hit from Macassa in Canada has topped the table for both markets.

The hit of 2m at 4,772.2 grams per tonne gold from 216.5m, announced in May, converts to 9,544gpt gold equivalent (Au-eq), easily making it the best of the year.

Second place NexGen Energy reported 36m at 11.36% uranium oxide at Rook I in Canada got 4,730gpt Au-eq.

Osisko Mining's 2m at 2,223gpt from 65m at Windfall in Canada equated to 4,446gpt Au-eq to make third spot.

It was followed by K92 Mining's 13m at 288.73gpt, 104gpt silver, and 0.77% copper (3,782gpt Au-eq) at Kainantu in Papua New Guinea.

Another uranium hit, this time at Dasa in Niger, returned 98m at 1.71% (2,576gpt Au-eq) for Global Atomic Corp in January.

It just pipped an intersection from last week from troubled Troy Resources, which hit 17m at 149.1gpt gold (2,535gpt Au-eq) at Karouni in Guyana, for the second-best ASX drill hit of the year and the sixth overall.

The best Australian hit of the year was from RNC Minerals with 2m at 1017.3gpt gold (2,035gpt Au-eq) from Beta Hunt.

It put RNC sixth for TSX hits and seventh overall.

Meteoric Resources had the eight-best hit of the year globally (and second on the ASX) with 20.6m at 94.9gpt gold (1,955gpt Au-eq) at its new Juruena project in Brazil.

HighGold Mining was ninth with the US' only entry. It reported an intercept of 107.8m at 12.42gpt gold, 8.9gpt silver, 0.88% copper, 7.11% zinc and 1.64% lead (for 1,956gpt Au-eq) at Johnson Tract.

Eldorado Gold snuck into the global top 10, edging out AVZ Minerals, with a hit of 85.8m at 21.79gpt (1,870gpt Au-eq) at Lamaque.

Despite just missing the global top 10, AVZ was fourth on the ASX list with 231.83m at 1.73% lithium oxide and 1,089 parts per million tin (1,860gpt Au-eq) at Manono in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In sixth for the ASX was Adriatic Metals at Rupice in Bosnia & Herzegovina (1,822gpt Au-eq), while Catalyst Metals and Hancock Prospecting were seventh for Four Eagles in Victoria (1,698gpt AuEq).

While Mincor Resources is a nickel developer, it was its for-sale gold project that got it on the list with 1.45m at 1,045gpt gold (1,515gpt Au-eq) enough to put it in eighth.

Aurelia Metals was ninth for a Peak hit of 16m at 71.6gpt gold, 5% lead, 3.5% zinc, 14gpt silver and 0.6% copper (1,235gpt Au-eq) in New South Wales.

Resolute Mining was another late entry, with last week's 12m at 93.61gpt gold (1,123gpt Au-eq) from Tabakoroni in Mali enough to reach the top 10.

The late entries from Troy and Resolute saw AuStar Gold and OceanaGold drop out of the top 10.

Rounding out the TSX top 10 was Wesdome Gold Mines in ninth for a hit (1,867gpt Au-eq) at Kiena in Canada, while Guyana Goldfields was 10th for a May result (1,842gpt Au-eq) from Aurora.

The data is provided by Opaxe, and all commodities are converted to gold-equivalent, based on selling prices for that week sourced from Quandl

 

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