Following completion of the Gruyere Project Joint Venture transaction with Gold Fields Ltd and receipt of funds in December 2016, Gold Road Resources can now refocus activities on its core strength of discovering gold deposits on the Yamarna Greenstone Belt. The Company has allocated: A$12-15M for exploration across the 100%‐owned North Yamarna tenements; In excess of A$5M for its contribution to exploration across the GJV tenements; and A$1.5-2M for its contribution to exploration on the South Yamarna Joint Venture tenements held 50:50 with Sumitomo.
Budgeting up to A$22 million spend
- 2017 exploration budget doubled to accelerate evaluation of Yamarna Belt
- Total 2017 Yamarna exploration spend to be approximately A$22 million
- High‐grade primary mineralised structures identified at Ibanez and Santana
- Bedrock gold mineralisation confirmed over 1.2 kilometre strike at Ibanez
- High‐grade intersections at YAM14 extends potential strike
- Smokebush magnetic anomaly test returns thick high‐grade mineralisation
- Best intersections include:
- 19 metres at 2.52 g/t Au from 94 metres at Ibanez
- 8 metres at 3.12 g/t Au from 234 metres at Santana
- 8 metres at 6.8 g/t Au from 32 metres at YAM14 (aircore)
- 19 metres at 3.17 g/t Au from 55 metres at Smokebush
Following completion of the Gruyere Project Joint Venture (GJV) transaction with Gold Fields Ltd (Gold Fields) in December 2016, Gold Road Resources Limited (Gold Road or the Company) can now refocus activities on its core strength of discovering gold deposits on the Yamarna Greenstone Belt. With the receipt of funds from Gold Fields in December 2016 the Company will be allocating:
- A$12 to 15 million for exploration across the 100%‐owned North Yamarna tenements
- In excess of A$5 million expenditure expected for exploration across the GJV tenements held 50:50 with Gold Fields (with Gold Fields contributing an equal amount), and
- A$1.5 to 2 million for exploration on the South Yamarna Joint Venture (SYJV) tenements held 50:50 with Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania Pty Limited (Sumitomo) (with Sumitomo contributing an equal amount).
In total across North Yamarna, GJV and SYJV tenements (Figure 1), Gold Road expects to be spending approximately A$22 million, with the provisional total spend including contribution from both JV partners across the Yamarna Belt of approximately A$30 million.
Gold Road Executive Director – Exploration & Growth Justin Osborne said: “The funding we have available following completion of the Gruyere JV transaction allows us to accelerate our geological evaluation of the Yamarna Belt. Gold Road will continue to use its proven exploration methodology of cost‐effectively evaluating previously identified highly prospective targets. In 2017, we plan to test multiple targets identified over the last three years across the North Yamarna tenements and are anticipating an aggressive drilling programme for the Gruyere JV which will be targeting expansion of the resource base for the Project including a deep diamond drilling programme targeting the potential underground extension to the current open pit Mineral Resource. This will represent an effective doubling of the 2016 exploration budget.”
Gold Road is also pleased to announce results of the final regional diamond, Reverse Circulation (RC) and aircore drilling programmes for 2016 providing immediate follow‐up targets to be further tested in 2017. Assay results from RC drilling were received from the Ibanez Prospect within the Pacific Dunes‐Corkwood Camp Scale Target (Camp #3) and the Santana and Satriani Prospects within the Sun River‐Wanderrie Camp Scale Target (Camp #4), both located on the 100% owned North Yamarna tenements (Figure 1). Continuity of high‐grade bed rock mineralisation was confirmed at both Ibanez (best intersection of 19 metres at 2.52 g/t Au from 94 metres, including 3 metres at 13.41 g/t Au, in hole 16CWRC0024) and Santana (best intersection of 8 metres at 3.12 g/t Au from 234 metres, including 2 metres at 8.24 g/t Au in hole 16TARC0012).
Exciting high‐grade results from 4 metre composite aircore samples were also received from YAM14 in the South Dorothy Hills Camp Scale Target (Camp #1) within the GJV tenements. The results (best intersections of 8 metres at 6.80 g/t Au from 32 metres, including 4 metres at 12.11 g/t Au from 32 metres in hole 16DHAC0665 and 17 metres at 2.61 g/t Au from 96 metres in hole 16DHAC0666) have the potential to double the strike length of the deposit with further drilling.
The Company has also received assay results from RC and aircore drilling programmes completed on the Riviera‐ Smokebush Camp Scale Target (Camp #5) within the SYJV tenements, owned 50:50 by Gold Road and Sumitomo Metal Mining Oceania Pty Limited (Sumitomo), which were highlighted by high‐grade RC results at the Smokebush Prospect (best intersection of 19 metres at 3.17 g/t Au from 55 metres, including 2 metres at 8.76 g/t Au in hole 16SYRC0087).