Rio Tinto Ltd [ASX:RIO] disclosed today the details of their Winu resource, of which they own 100%.
Winu project is a copper-gold mineralisation project in the Paterson Province, in Western Australia.
Rio Tinto said that after drilling, Inferred Mineral Resource in Winu is 503 million tonnes at 0.45% copper equivalent (CuEq), at a 0.2% copper equivalent cut-off. This includes a higher-grade component of 188 Mt at 0.68% CuEq at a cut-off grade of 0.45% CuEq.
So far, their study work hints that this copper mineralisation would allow for a relatively shallow open-pit mine.
Rio is looking at starting production at Winu in 2023, as long as they can get all the necessary approvals.
But there’s more, Rio also hit gold
Rio Tinto also took the opportunity to reveal they’ve made a new gold discovery. The new prospect is located in Ngapakarra. Ngapakarra is located very close to Winu, around 2 km east, as you can see in the map below.
Source: Rio Tinto
Drilling turned up a high-grade vein-hosted gold. Some of the results include: 23 m @ 4.53 grams per tonne gold, from 120 m, including 0.75 m @ 97.1 g/t Au from 129 m. Also, 2.88 m @ 33.3 g/t Au, from 163m, and 25 m @ 4.87 g/t Au, from 349 m, including 1 m @ 83.5 g/t Au from 352 m.
Rio Tinto’s growth and innovation executive Stephen McIntosh said:
‘The additional exploration results reported today support our view that there is potential to develop the Paterson region into a large-scale operation over time through both our 100% owned tenements and joint ventures1. We’ve so far carried out exploration activity in just 2% of our tenements in the region and we’re building on this discovery at Winu with further encouraging results.’
What could happen next?
The company said they will continue exploring Ngapakarra this year to increase their understanding of the mineralisation.
The gold discovery comes at a good time, after gold spot prices hit a record high yesterday in US dollars. At time of writing the RIO share price is trading about 1.5% higher than yesterday, at $104.52.
One way to get exposure to this gold rally is through physical gold. Another is through gold stocks.
But it’s not easy to choose the winners.
Check out Rum Rebellion editor Greg Canavan’s ‘How to Pick Winning Gold Stocks’, where he details what to look for in an ASX-listed gold miner.
You can get this free report here.
Best,
Selva Freigedo,
For The Rum Rebellion