New high-grade drilling results from Lion One Metals’ Tuvatu gold mine in Fiji have highlighted geological similarities with Papua New Guinea’s Porgera mine, including mineralization associated with quartz, roscoelite and visible gold.
Lion One reported an intersection of 4.2 meters grading 715.15 grams per tonne of gold from underground drilling at Tuvatu, including a 0.45-meter interval grading 6,571.20 grams per tonne.
The company said the latter was the highest-grade assay result ever recorded at Tuvatu.
Lion One reported the results from 3,337.30 meters of underground infill and grade-control drilling targeting the Ura and Murau lodes in Zone 2, below Level 1061.
Fourteen of 18 completed drill holes intersected high-grade mineralization, with most of the results located within 15 to 75 meters of underground development and within 50 meters vertically.
The company said the results could support the expansion of the mine plan, with the mineralized areas expected to be incorporated into the plan within the next 12 months.
The Ura and Murau systems remain open at depth and along strike and are outside the current resource in several areas, presenting potential for further resource growth.
Lion One said the headline 4.2-meter intersection was located about 55 meters from the Western Decline and intersected a shallow-dipping, roscoelite-bearing vein forming part of the Murau lode system.
Roscoelite mineralization is associated with high-grade gold in alkaline gold deposits. Lion One cited the Vatukoula mine in Fiji and Porgera in PNG as examples of deposits with similar mineralization.
At Porgera, the company said Stage II quartz-roscoelite-pyrite veins containing native gold are among the most significant mineralized structures in Zone VII of the Roamane fault zone.
Zone VII produced 5.1 million ounces of gold at an average grade of 27 grams per tonne, according to Lion One.
The company said individual veins in the zone locally contained gold grades ranging from hundreds to thousands of grams per tonne, similar to some of the results now being reported at Tuvatu.
Five assays from the latest Tuvatu drilling returned more than 100 grams per tonne of gold, including the 6,571.20 grams per tonne result.
Lion One President and Chief Executive Officer Ian Berzins said the latest drilling demonstrated the potential of the Ura and Murau systems.
“We’re extremely pleased with the new results from our Zone 2 drilling,” Berzins said. “The interval of 715.15 g/t gold over 4.2 m is the highest grade over width in the history of Tuvatu, and it’s located in close proximity to our underground workings in an area of limited drilling.”
The company said drilling is continuing at Tuvatu, with further work targeting resource expansion in Zone 2 and Zone 5.
Lion One said its drilling results were reported as downhole intervals, with true widths not yet known because of variability in structural orientation.
The company applies a 3 grams per tonne gold composite cutoff when reporting drill-hole intercepts.
Tuvatu is a 100%-owned alkaline gold project operated by Lion One in Fiji. The project includes the Tuvatu deposit, underground mine, pilot plant and assay laboratory, as well as an exploration licence covering the Navilawa Caldera.
Lion One said the company operates its own geochemical laboratory and diamond drilling fleet, with its laboratory accredited under the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard.
