TNM Drill Down: Peregrine reports best width x grade gold value yet in Australia

Our TNM Drill Down features highlights of the top gold assays of the past week (Oct. 6-13). Drill holes are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by data provider Mining Intelligence.

Peregrine Gold (ASX: PGD) has reported the highest width x grade value since The Northern Miner’s first started our weekly Drill Down report last July. The company said on Oct. 12 that diamond drilling in hole 23KD37 at its Newman project in Western Australia returned 3.6 metres grading 1,952 grams gold per tonne from surface for a width x grade value of 7,027.

The hole was one of 53 for 380.8 metres of drilling that targeted the Peninsula prospect. According to Peregrine, Peninsula features a prominent quartz-ironstone breccia vein, measuring about 180 metres in length, 4 to 5 metres in thickness, and dipping at a 30-degree angle to the northeast.

While surface observations revealed gold within the vein at one location, a subsequent hand-held drill core extraction yielded a noteworthy gold-rich quartz-ironstone breccia core. Despite the team undertaking an unsuccessful reverse-circulation drilling effort in 2022 in search of gold, a precise, closely spaced diamond drilling initiative was started this year.

This focused on the auriferous section of the vein and areas both east and west along its strike to delineate the potential architecture of gold mineralization.

The company plans additional diamond drilling at Peninsula to determine if a high-grade plunging gold structure is present.

Ranked second this week, Freegold Ventures (TSX: FVL) on Oct. 11 announced that hole GS2314 at its Golden Summit project near Fairbanks, Alaska, cut 113.3 metres grading 5.42 grams gold per tonne from 385.7 metres depth, for a width x grade value of 614.

The hole was collared in the Dolphin Cleary zone, where two drill rigs continued to test the potential for expansion to the west, expanding the higher-grade mineralization found within the Cleary Vein Swarm and initial reconnaissance drilling of the Saddle Zone.

Notably, the hole cut through two significant high-grade intervals, including 2.1 metres grading 82.5 grams gold from 293.6 metres and 3.1 metres with 160 grams gold from 495.9 metres.

This, coupled with the findings from a previous westward hole (GS2241 – which intersected 88.7 metres at 1.43 grams gold per tonne), along with robust gold soil geochemistry, provides strong evidence supporting the notion of substantial expansion potential to the west, where ongoing drilling efforts are currently underway.

G2 Goldfields (TSXV: GTWO) ranks third this week with a broad mineralized intercept from its Ghanie South prospect at the Oko project in Guyana heralding a discovery. The company reported on Oct. 10 that hole GDD-68A cut 11 metres grading 37.9 grams gold per tonne 148 metres depth for a width x grade value of 417.

The hole followed up on the previous high-grade GDD-06 intercept of 3 metres grading 17 grams gold per tonne from 58 metres, reported in early April.

The hole was sunk about 300 metres south of the Ghanie Main zone, with Ghanie South the site of ongoing drilling targeting extensions to the high-grade discovery. 

Drilling continues at the Oko Main zone and Ghanie Central, with two drill rigs targeting down-plunge extensions of the high-grade mineralization.