ZFX Shanhai Securities: Gold Drilling Shifts Toward Structural and Metallurgical Validation

On October 12, following encouraging gold assay results, the project still needs to address questions about orebody geometry and recovery performance.

ZFX Shanhai Securities noted that MB Gold released partial results from the second phase at Marble Bar, including a 9-meter interval grading 4.03 grams of gold per tonne at Razorback, and approved a further 2,000 meters of diamond drilling to test deeper targets.

The reverse circulation drilling program completed 31 holes totaling 4,308 meters, with some results still pending.

ZFX Shanhai Securities believes that the high-grade intervals already returned can raise interest in the targets, but selecting only the best hole sections would overlook grade variability across different locations and the uncertainty of remaining samples.

The results not yet received will likewise affect the assessment of the entire mineralized system.

Compared with reverse circulation drilling, which mainly provides rock chip samples, the subsequent drill core data will help identify structural orientation and also prepare samples for early-stage metallurgical studies.

How much gold is contained in the ore and how much gold can ultimately be recovered are two questions that need to be verified separately.

Recovery routes, impurities, and ore characteristics may all alter the economic evaluation at the time of project development.

Even if assay grades are favorable, if the metal is difficult to separate economically from the ore, the value of subsequent development will be discounted, so this step carries independent assessment significance.

Its results will also influence subsequent plans.

According to the company's arrangements, new drilling is planned to commence in November, with assays expected to be returned in the first quarter of 2027.

ZFX Shanhai Securities commented that going forward, attention should be paid to whether coring quality, deep structures, and metallurgical data can complement one another.

Gradually converting exploration results into data usable for engineering design is closer to the actual needs of project development than simply comparing the highest grades.