Darcy Marud, President and CEO of Western Exploration (TSX.V: WEX) (OTCQX: WEXPF), joins us to outline the key objectives for the 4,000 meter drill program this year that just commenced today, which is following up on the high-grade gold and silver assays returned from last year’s program at the Gravel Creek Project. We also review the larger vision for future development of the Company’s Aura Project, consisting of the Doby George and Gravel Creek/Wood Gulch Projects in Elko County, Nevada.
The Aura Project has a N.I. 43-101 Compliant Resource, last updated in 2021, of 607,000 ozs of gold and 3,169,000 silver ozs in the Indicated category @ (14,237,000 tonnes @ 1.43 AuEq g/t), and 578,000 gold and 6,115,000 silver ozs in the Inferred category @ (12,102,000 tonnes @ 1.71 AuEq g/t).
Darcy points out their exploration team was extremely pleased with the 2023 drill program results, which intersected some of the highest assay values ever recorded at Gravel Creek (2800.0 g/t Ag in WG456 and 257.0 g/t Au in WG457). The structural interpretation has provided a breakthrough that identifies significantly expanded resource potential in the Jarbidge rhyolite to the east/north-east of the current Gravel Creek resource area with grades that are significantly higher than the current resource grades.
The 4,000 meters of drilling at Gravel Creek for this year will target these high-grade veins identified in the Jarbidge rhyolite east of the Gravel Creek deposit. Major Drilling [Group International Inc has been contracted to supply two core drills for the oriented core drill program. stepping out from holes WG456 and WG457 to better define the structure of this high-grade area, and bring all this data into the inferred resources. We also look at the historic production from prior operators out of the Wood Gulch / Gravel Creek complex, where Wood Gulch produced 646,500 tonnes and a historic resource that averaged 3.36 g/t Au and 23.65 g/t Ag. We also reviewed the opportunity for future exploration programs to test the “gap area” between these 2 areas and that it all could potentially connect both areas into one larger system.
Next we pivoted over the Doby George deposit, the prior exploration work completed at this project, the oxide resources as they stand today, the opportunity to continue exploring at depth for sulphide resources, and the optionality for development and future production at this Project. Positive metallurgical results were returned from work just in January of this year. This also ties into a larger discussion on how the Doby George and Gravel Creek/Wood Gulch properties combine into a larger strategy for the overall Aura Project.
If you have any questions for Darcy about Western Exploration, then please email us at Fleck@kereport.com and Shad@kereport.com.
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