‘Pivotal’ drill campaign at Steam Engine gold project

Superior Resources has kicked off its 2024 drill program at the Steam Engine project as it runs the ruler back over scoping study figures to reflect a $AU1000/oz-plus lift in gold prices. A total of 45 reverse-circulation (RC) drill holes totalling about 4500m are planned across the Steam Engine and Eastern Ridge lodes. “This year’s drill program at Steam Engine represents the most pivotal for the project and from which we expect to establish a maiden ore reserve as well as further expansion of the mineral resource," Superior managing director Peter Hwang said. "We also have high expectations for the discovery of significant new gold lodes at very convincing sub-audio magnetic, or SAM, geophysical targets." The company is looking to expand on the established resource of 196,000oz gold at the North Queensland project. Mr Hwang said the company drilled almost 200 holes and over 13,000m into the ore body during the 2020 and 2021 field seasons. "So the mineral resource is of high quality with a large portion already in the measured and indicated categories," he said. "Some of our key objectives over the coming months are to maximise pit optimisation outcomes and to convert the measured and indicated resources to ore reserve categories." Aerial view of the Steam Engine project looking north. A revision of the 2021 Steam Engine scoping study is nearing completion, taking into account significant shifts in the fundamental price and cost assumptions used in financial modelling. The study results announced in April 2021 used a base-case gold price of $2200 per ounce (using $0.76 AUD/USD), was based on extracting only 70,000 oz gold, and was centred on an outdated mineral resource estimate, Superior said. It is being revised at a gold price of $3250/oz. Given the current gold prices, Mr Hwang said the revised study was evaluating toll treatment and owner-operated processing plant scenarios. “In the meantime, pad preparations are underway for the Queensland Government-backed CEI holes at Bottletree, so we are looking forward to significant activity this season,” he said. Superior has been granted $300,000 under the Collaborative Exploration Initiative (CEI) for the drilling of two diamond holes at the Bottletree copper-gold-molybdenum project, which lies within its wider Greenvale project. You may also like: https://industryqld.com.au/nq-neighbours-work-together-on-gold-treatment-options

‘Pivotal’ drill campaign at Steam Engine gold project

Industry Queensland

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