Glass Earth finds high-grade gold vein
EXPLORATION company Glass Earth Gold says it has ‘‘very encouraging’’ results after hitting a small, high-grade section of gold during drilling at the Muirs Reef prospect near Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty.
NZAX listed Glass Earth has just drilled three holes and has decided to move to a double shift on the programme of 17 holes after hitting a ‘‘high-grade interval’’ in the second hole, which was seen as ‘‘a very promising sign’’.
While just two metres wide, it contained 38.4 grams of gold a tonne of ore, many times higher than the average cutoff grade of between 1 to 1.5g/t.
Such a rich vein could potentially support an underground mine in the area, just 20 minutes from Te Puke.
The first drill hole hit a 17m interval at 1.7g/t, so the latest result complemented some broader lower-grade results which could support an open-cast pit, the company said. Chief executive Simon Henderson said the latest results ‘‘are good high grades over a reasonable width’’.
While it was ‘‘very early days’’ in exploration, with many months of work before the company might know if it was a commercial discovery, the Muirs Reef prospect could contain perhaps 200,000 to 300,000 ounces of gold and possibly as much as one million.
‘‘It is a very good start
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it might grow in the future to around one million ounces but right now, we don’t have any defined resources, so we would be purely speculating’’.
To put the high-grade section in context, when the 12m gold oz Martha Hill mine at Waihi was running up to the early 1950s, mainly underground in 2m to 3m-wide veins, it had an average grade of 16 to 18g/t.
‘‘So this is double that,’’ Henderson said. ‘‘So it is nice to get some high numbers like that’’.
Two quartz reefs were mined in the area until the 1930s, with more than 43,000 ounces of gold extracted from shallow surface and underground workings.
With the good signs so far, the company is speeding up work to complete drilling in three to four months and may keep going if it keeps getting high numbers. A defined resource may be clear by the end of the year. It may be possible to say if it is economic to mine by the middle of next year.
‘‘We are some time away from that,’’ Henderson said.
Even once a resource was defined, it could take two years before mining started, all going well.
Muirs Reef is on private land, which made it simpler than being on, say, DOC land. A mine could cost up to $70m to develop and could employ up to 100 people.
Muirs Reef is 65km south-east of the world-class Martha Hill mine, run by Newmont Mining, which is a 10m-oz deposit.
‘‘The geological look is ical,’’ Henderson said.
Glass Earth is also exploring in central Otago and is also involved in a joint venture with Newmont near the Martha mine.
Glass Earth has C$3.6m in cash and some income from a small alluvial gold mine in Otago to help support the drilling programme.
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