Moho Resources Ltd (ASX:MOH) is making strong progress towards its goal of becoming a gold producer, with its two Western Australian projects generating considerable newsflow in the past two months.
Moho wholly owns the Silver Swan North Gold-Nickel Project, covering about 112 square kilometres northeast of the famed mining precinct of Kalgoorlie, and has a 70% holding in the Burracoppin gold joint venture project alongside IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) (OTCMKTS:IPGDF).
Excitingly, Moho has just released a promising interim mineral resource estimate for the East Sampson Dam (ESD) prospect within the Silver Swan North project of 264,000 tonnes at 2.5 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold for 21,600 ounces at a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t.
Earlier in June, the company completed a maiden diamond drilling campaign at the Crossroads prospect within the Burracoppin project, with results due imminently.
And that’s not all - Moho will also soon earn a 70% interest in the Empress Springs Gold Project in Queensland via a farm-in agreement with IGO; commercial director Ralph Winter recently described Empress Springs as a “potential company maker”.
East Sampson Dam mineral resource estimate
East Sampson Dam (ESD) lies within the northwest-trending Kanowna greenstone belt, near the famed mining precinct of Kalgoorlie; the greenstone belts of the Kalgoorlie Terrane are host to many world-class nickel and gold deposits.
Part of Silver Swan North, Moho believes the area is significantly under-explored and highly prospective for gold and nickel; managing director Shane Sadleir said the interim resource estimate was a big step forward for the company.
“Completion of the interim mineral resource estimate marks a major milestone for Moho in advancing the East Sampson Dam prospect to potential gold production,” he said.
“Importantly there is significant potential to increase the resource estimate given that mineralisation is open to the north, south and at depth.
“With that in mind, we are aggressively accelerating drill programs into the second half of this year while commencing a scoping study to progress mine development.”
The interim mineral resource estimate was 264,000 tonnes at 2.5 g/t gold for 21,600 ounces at a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t.
Mineralisation is open to the north, south and at depth at the ESD prospect and 70.2% of the interim resource estimate is in the indicated category, providing great scope to expedite mining.
A whopping 93%, or 19,000 ounces, of the resource is within softer, near-surface zones, allowing for easier drilling, and the grade is highly sensitive to cut-off, increasing to 4.3 g/t for 18,700 ounces at 1.0 g/t cut-off grade.
Next at East Sampson Dam & Silver Swan North
Moho is now looking to appoint a qualified mine engineer experienced in open-cut gold mining and toll treatment to help drive ESD towards production.
The appointee would oversee pit optimisation on the current drilling information; make recommendations for any further RC drilling, metallurgical test-work and mining studies; and conduct a scoping study on the economic benefits of mine development using a toll milling facility.
The company will also conduct an aircore drilling program at the adjoining Tyrells and Hodges prospects testing 2.5 kilometres of gold anomalism defined by soil geochemistry this month.
Later this year, Moho is planning an RC drilling program to test extensions of mineralisation along strike to north and south and at depth as well as an aircore drill program to test multiple gold soil anomalies at the Silver Swan North Project, including at the Happs and Yalumba prospects southeast of ESD.
Maiden Burracoppin drilling
Situated within Western Australia’s Yilgarn Craton, the Burracoppin Gold Project spans two exploration tenements over 126 square kilometres.
Additionally, the operating Edna May gold mine is just 10 kilometres east of the project area in the craton’s Westonia Greenstone Belt.
Moho’s maiden diamond drilling campaign at the Burracoppin JV, which began in May, covered 630 metres across four holes, targeting mineralisation intersected during a reverse circulation (RC) campaign conducted in January this year.
Moho chose the hole locations based on the gold tenement’s multi-element geochemistry, geophysics and gold assay values, with the latest diamond drilling following up extensions of a broad mineralised gold zone at Crossroads.
Results from the diamond drilling program are imminent.
“The diamond drilling represents a significant advance in Moho’s geological understanding of the Burracoppin Project and will enable our geological team to vector into the gold mineralisation at the Crossroads prospect,” Sadleir said.
Winter told Proactive back in April the RC drill results - with best assays including 1-metre at 7.48 g/t gold from 92 metres in bedrock and 8 metres at 0.47 g/t from 51 metres in supergene - were highly promising.
“It’s a very exciting development and we’re really looking forward to the results that are going to come out of this,” he said at the time.
What’s next at Crossroads and Burracoppin
The company will compile the diamond drill program results with its data suite to generate targets at Crossroads prospect.
Then, Moho will take a broader approach, compiling and reviewing all surface geochemical data across the Burracoppin project area.
Once both of these tasks take place in the current quarter, Moho will consider further reverse circulation drilling, either in 2021’s second half or the first quarter of next year.
Empress Springs potential
In March Moho conducted a hydrogeochemistry borehole sampling program at Empress Springs in northeast Queensland, which identified an anomalous gold zone of more than 90 kilometres.
Winter told investors in April that Empress Springs, where Moho owns more than 3,400 square kilometres of land, was a “potential company maker”.
“The hydrogeochemistry program was an effective way for us to define a large mineral zone and we got a fantastic gold and porphyry signature anomaly over 90 kilometres,” he said.
“We’re in the process of working up an exploration program which is looking fantastic, and it is really going to be something that defines the company as we move forward for many years to come.”
“A rare opportunity”
Shaw & Partners director of corporate finance and WA state manager Davide Bosio told Proactive in April that Moho presented a “rare opportunity” for investors.
“We’ve seen a lot of uplift in junior exploration companies and to find companies with a market cap of less than $10 million is almost as rare as hen’s teeth,” he said.
“Moho have an impressive suite of gold and nickel assets only around 50km from Kalgoorlie and we can see a lot of catalysts in the near future - ongoing drilling and exploration, the commencement of scoping studies and metallurgical reports, which are all catalysts for potential re-ratings if Moho has success at the drill bit.”
Bosio also said mergers and acquisitions would continue to be a big theme.
“We’re in a good gold environment with a tailwind behind the sector, and some of the majors with lots of milling infrastructure… they could easily buy some of these proven smaller assets that can be very profitable in this market,” he said.