TNM Drill Down: Top gold assays for the week Aug. 26 to Sept. 2

Welcome to our weekly feature, TNM Drill Down, focusing on the top gold assays of the past week. Assays are ranked by gold grade x width, as identified by our sister company Mining Intelligence.

This week’s best drill intercept comes from Hummingbird Resources’ (AIM: HUM) Kouroussa project in Guinea. The company reported the final assay results from the 2021 infill drilling program, which included reverse circulation hole KRCD1899, intersecting 9 metres grading 32.60 grams gold per tonne from 116.0 metres below surface, for a grade x width value of 293.40. The final batch of results was not included in the company’s June 30 resource and reserve update. Hummingbird has completed more than 50% of the construction of the Kouroussa mine, which will become the company’s second producing asset. Mining is expected to start later this year, ahead of the first gold pour by late in the second quarter of 2023.

This week’s second-best gold intercept comes from Collective Mining (TSXV: CNL), where assay results from two more holes at the Guayabales project’s Apollo discovery returned 180.60 metres grading 1.52 grams gold per tonne from 303.40 metres below surface for a grade x width value of 274.51. Apollo is a high-grade copper-gold-silver porphyry-related breccia discovery and is one of eight porphyry-related targets within a three-by-four-kilometre cluster area the company had generated through grassroots exploration at the project. As part of its fully funded 20,000-plus metre drill program for 2022, three diamond drill rigs are currently operating at the Apollo target, with an additional rig drilling from underground at the Olympus target. The company interprets the latest intercepts as demonstrating a continuous mineralized breccia and overprinting CBM vein system, expanding with every drill hole completed. With multiple overprinting events depositing mineralization into the system, the Apollo main breccia is believed to have all the suitable markers to evolve into a large-scale discovery.

This week’s third-best drill intercept comes from Monarch Mining (TSX: GBAR), which reported a third batch of drill assay results from its 2021/22 Swanson drilling program in Val-d’Or, Que. Hole SW-22-023 returned 13.50 metres grading 18.18 grams gold per tonne from 411 metres depth, for a grade x width value of 245.43. The hole tested the down-plunge continuity of the Swanson deposit to a vertical depth of 360 metres. The hole intersected three of the interpreted mineralized lenses, all beyond the current limits of the interpreted wireframes used in the 2021 mineral resource estimate. The mineralized intersections included 7.21 grams of gold per tonne over 1 metre, 2.5 grams gold per tonne over 7.65 metres, and 117.91 grams gold per tonne over 2 metres, with the lower two zones together comprising the third-best intercept. The results are thought to help further define the plunging trend of the Swanson gold deposit.