Cue Gold Project

Ramelius acquired the Cue Gold Project in September 2023, from Musgrave Minerals Ltd. The Cue Project is located predominantly between the townsites of Mount Magnet and Cue within the Murchison region of Western Australia, and 40km north of the Checkers Mill at Ramelius’ Mt Magnet Gold Mine. Access is via the Great Northern Highway. The project has previously been sub-divided into the Moyagee and Tuckabianna (Cyprium JV) areas, with the latter situated 20km east of Cue. The acquisition also included additional tenure at the Mt Magnet South Project, 15km southwest of the Mt Magnet township.

Towards the end of the June 2024 Quarter, site establishment and clearing activities commenced at Cue. It is expected that ore tonnes mined will decrease in the September 2024 Quarter as the open pit mining fleet mobilises to Cue to commence pre-strip and open pit development works. However, mined grades will increase due to the higher grade Cue ore.

Cue open put mining commencement

First Blast at Cue – July 2024

At Tuckabianna, a joint venture agreement has been executed with Cyprium Australia Pty Ltd, where Cyprium has earned an 80% interest in the non-gold rights over the northern tenements at the Cue Project. Ramelius retains the gold rights to the tenure and a 20% free carried interest on the non-gold rights.

In September 2019, Musgrave announced that it had entered into an Earn-In and Joint Venture Exploration Agreement with Evolution Mining Ltd over a select area of Lake Austin and surrounds (JV Area) of the Cue Project in the Murchison District of Western Australia. The JV Area excluded all the known resources and the Mainland option area. Evolution earned a 75% interest in the JV Area by sole funding A$18 million on exploration. Evolution has elected to manage the joint venture.

In early 2023, Musgrave exercised an Option to acquire 100% of the non-alluvial gold rights to the Mainland Project, directly adjacent to the 100% owned tenure at Cue. Mainland has seen very limited basement drilling but has produced significant quantities of alluvial gold since circa 1900.

Project Geology
The Cue gold project is located within the Murchison Domain of the Youanmi Terrane, featuring volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Norrie and Polelle groups, part of the Murchison supergroup. Significant mafic and felsic intrusive units have been emplaced into the volcanic sequence. The dominant structural feature in the area is the regional-scale, north-south trending, Cuddingwarra Shear. At Moyagee, a second order shear zone splays off the Cuddingwarra towards the northeast. This structure, the Lena shear, is spatially associated with much of the mineralisation at Moyagee.

Mineralisation
The Cue project contains a current mineral resource estimate of 12.3Mt @ 2.3g/t for 927koz. Of this, 10.8Mt @ 2.5g/t for 868koz is situated at the Moyagee project, with 1.5Mt @ 1.2g/t for 59koz at Tuckabianna. A key component of the Cue resource is the high grade Break of Day trend, which hosts 982kt @ 10.4g/t for 327koz.

Lena and the Break of Day Trend
The Lena deposit is located within the Lena Shear Zone and features a current mineral resource estimate of 4.3mt @ 2.3g/t Au for 325koz Au. Mineralisation occurs in tabular domains oriented sub-parallel to the shear, within an ultramafic volcanic package intruded by a number of felsic porphyry units.

Higher grade mineralisation is commonly associated with quartz-sulphide shear veins (up to 1m wide) and biotite-sericite-albite-sulphide alteration. The mineralised veins are strongly affected by folding, boudinage and transposition in the shear foliation, suggesting mineralisation was developed pre to syn-shearing.

The Break of Day trend comprises the high grade Break of Day (797kt @ 10.2g/t Au for 262koz Au) and White Heat-Mosaic (185kt @ 11.0g/t for 65koz) deposits. Mineralisation is restricted to a low-strain tholeiitic basalt unit and hosted within discordant quartz breccia lodes with minor sulphides (1-2%), predominantly pyrite. Several mineralised orientations are present at the Break of Day trend, but the thickest, highest grade mineralisation is typically associated with northwest-trending lodes, such as Starlight, White Light, and White Heat.

The 2020 discovery of the Starlight and White Light gold lodes at Break of Day led to significant near-surface high grade resource growth. Significant intercepts from the Starlight and White Light lodes include:

  • Starlight:
    o 14m @ 191.1g/t Au from 4m (20MORC068)
    o 12m @ 109.4g/t Au from 40m (20MORC033)
    o 31m @ 44.8g/t Au from 27m (20MORC037)
    o 16m @ 13.7g/t Au from 16m (20MODD008)
    o 28m @ 68.5g/t Au from 21m (23MORC205)
    o 19m @ 112.0g/t Au from 27m (23MORC208)
  • White Light:
    o 6m @ 48.2g/t from 211m (20MODD005)
    o 3m @ 126.7g/t from 72m (20MORC001)

High grades are also common within the other lodes at Break of Day. Significant intercepts from the north-south trending Twilight lode include:

  • 15m @ 60.3g/t from 14m (23MORC154)
  • 18m @ 71.1g/t from 13m (23MORC318)
  • 10m @ 64.0g/t from 4m (23MORC151)

The White Heat lode was discovered in 2021, located just 300m south of Break of Day. Individual gold lodes in this high-grade system have a strike of 70-100m, are near-surface and open down plunge. Intersections at White Heat include:

  • 4m @ 100.1g/t Au from 74.6m (21MODD019)
  • 7m @ 149.6g/t Au from 143m (22MORC130)
  • 3m @ 378.0g/t from 12m (23MORC225)

Adjoining the White Heat lode, the ENE-trending Mosaic lode was discovered in late 2021. Intersections in the Mosaic lode include:

  • 15m @ 111.6g/t Au from 25m (21MORC232)
  • 9m @ 110.5g/t Au from 42m (21MORC414)
  • 2.8m @ 122.2g/t Au from 72m (21MODD041)

Other Moyagee Deposits
The Big Sky deposit (4.7Mt @ 1.2g/t for 173koz) is situated 3km southwest of Break of Day, within a strongly sheared package of sediments intruded by felsic porphyries. Mineralisation occurs in tabular zones oriented sub-parallel to the shear fabric with internal competency contrasts between the lithologies a likely factor in controlling mineralisation. Higher grade mineralisation is commonly associated with increased density of quartz-sulphide veins (up to ~5 cm wide), and sericite-carbonate-pyrite alteration.

At the Numbers deposit (817kt @ 1.3g/t for 35koz), mineralisation is restricted to a series of banded iron units, hosted within high-magnesian basalts. The Leviticus deposit is located 1.5km south-southeast of the White Heat deposit, hosted within the high-magnesian basalt immediately to the east of the Starlight tholeiitic basalt sequence. The mineralisation style is comparable to Lena and comprises sulphide-rich shear lodes parallel to stratigraphic contacts. The deposit hosts a current resource of 42kt @ 6.0g/t for 8koz.

Several newer prospects have also recently been discovered that are not currently included in the resource estimate. These include Amarillo, an analogue to Big Sky 700m further north, and Waratah, featuring BIF-hosted mineralisation comparable to Numbers.

Evolution Joint Venture (EVN 75%: RMS 25%)
The Lake Austin North, A-Zone gold discovery is approximately 3km north of Break of Day on Lake Austin. The target was initially defined through the integration of newly acquired gravity data with the existing aeromagnetic data and some minor broad spaced historical regional aircore drilling and partial leach geochemistry.

The A-Zone mineralisation at Lake Austin North is located along the continuation of the Break of Day/Lena shear on the margin of a tonalite (granite) intrusive. To date, basement RC and diamond drilling has only tested 300m of a potentially 3km long mineralised trend. Drilling results include:

  • 84m @ 1.7g/t Au from 84m (18MORC039)
  • 94m @ 2.2g/t Au from 156m (18MORC057)
  • 20m @ 4.5g/t Au from 102.2m (18MODD005)
  • 242m @ 1.0g/t Au from 61m (18MODD008)

Evolution drill tested the West Island aircore gold anomaly in 2021 with an initial diamond drilling program intersecting gold mineralisation in the basement, including:

  • 5m @ 3.2g/t Au from 245m (21MODD006)
  • 11m @ 3.6g/t Au from 272m (21MODD001)
  • 4.26m @ 41.5g/t Au from 160.74m (21MODD025)
  • 19m @ 4.4g/t Au from 282m (22CUDD001)

On 20 July 2023, Evolution announced a maiden Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate at West Island (see EVN ASX announcement dated 20 July 2023, “Ernest Henry Drill Results and Cue JV Update”).

The West Island maiden Inferred Mineral Resource is estimated at 1.7Mt @ 2.6g/t gold for 142,000 ounces on a 100% basis (RMS has a 25% interest). The Mineral Resource has been reported above a 0.73g/t gold cut-off and within an optimised pit shell developed using a gold price of $2,500/oz.