Aruma Resources Ltd (ASX:AAJ) has fielded promising results from the Salmon Gums Gold Project in Western Australia's Eastern Goldfields. The company believes the high-grade gold exploration project is showing signs of becoming an emerging new gold camp.
Exceeded expectations
The recent drilling program, which consisted of 44 reverse circulation (RC) holes totalling 5,366 metres and a shallow 894-hole auger drill program, aimed to follow up on the bonanza-grade gold previously intersected at the project. The results have exceeded expectations, providing further indication of its potential.
The RC drilling successfully intersected multiple anomalous gold zones at the priority Iris and Thistle prospects, expanding the gold mineralised footprint in these target areas.
The company has also defined a new prospect named Rose between Iris and Thistle, which boasts multiple gold intersections.
Notable results from the RC drilling include:
- 1 metre at 3.0g/t gold at Iris;
- 1 metre at 1.3g/t gold at Thistle; and
- 5 metres at 0.4g/t gold, also at Thistle.
At the Rose prospect, intersections included 1 metre at 2.3g/t gold and 1 metre at 2.1g/t gold.
Aruma plans to conduct targeted diamond drilling as the next step, specifically focusing on the bonanza gold intersection of 5 metres at 50.2g/t gold from a previous phase of drilling. The program aims to better define the controls and extensions of this high-grade gold zone.
The auger drilling program, which tested strong coincident gold and arsenic soil anomalies, has also yielded positive results.
Multiple new gold prospects are now in Aruma’s sights, with rare earth element (REE) soil anomalies, including cerium (Ce) and lanthanum (La) all detected.
Considerable strike, significant deposit
Aruma managing director Glenn Grayson said: "The Salmon Gums Gold Project has the potential to host a significant mineral deposit.
“This round of drilling was designed to test our geologic model for gold mineralisation at the project over a considerable strike, and has been successful in intersecting multiple zones of gold mineralisation, which has resulted in the definition of a new target, at the Rose prospect.
“As our understanding of the gold model at Salmon Gums increases, as a next step we plan to undertake targeted diamond drilling in several orientations, to follow up the bonanza gold intersection of 5 metres at 50.2g/t from our previous phase of drilling and to increase our understanding of what is controlling the high grade gold.”