Rumble Resources (ASX: RTR) has announced a significant increase to the mineral resource estimate at its historical Western Queen gold project in Western Australia. Rumble Resources is an Australian-based exploration company focused on discovering world-class mineral deposits. The company’s primary focus is on the Earaheedy project in Western Australia.
The new resource estimate, based on an additional 8,205 metres of reverse circulation drilling and 2,453 metres of diamond drilling, now stands at 3.72 million tonnes grading 3.1 grams per tonne gold for 370,000 ounces. This represents a 29% increase in global ounces and a 53% increase in the global resource head grade. Drilling efforts targeted new and extended high-grade mineralised positions at the Western Queen South and Princess deposits, resulting in a 75% increase in inferred resources, now at 2.4 million tonnes at 2.8 grams per tonne gold for 217,800 ounces.
The strongest upgrade was recorded at Western Queen South, where a revised estimate of 2.32 million tonnes at 2.66 grams per tonne gold for 198,900 ounces represents a 59% increase in the deposit’s overall ounce position. Managing director Peter Harold noted that Western Queen remains open along strike and at depth, suggesting further drilling could lead to additional growth in gold resources.
Rumble Resources is now evaluating the economics of a proposed open-pit project against the potential returns from an underground operation. The company anticipates that further drilling at Western Queen will extend the project’s high-grade mineralisation at depth and convert a substantial portion of the new inferred resource to the higher-confidence indicated category. Rumble has submitted a heritage survey request for proposed aircore and reverse circulation work across the acreage and plans to complete the campaign early in the new year. The Western Queen project is located within 200 kilometres of five gold processing mills, including Spartan Resources’ Dalgaranga plant.
