REZ secured the East Menzies assets from vendors including g director Richard Poole, last November, and after around six months of delving into the data undertook its maiden drilling program mid-year, with a follow-up program to the south starting now.

 

The maiden drilling, 14 RC holes at Goodenough, returned some impressive hits such 2m at 5.5 grams per tonne from 61m with 1m at 9.2gpt, and 4m at 4.2gpt from 124m, including 1m at 8.34gpt.

 

Price told MNN the results would be used to update the JORC 2004 resource of 36,850 ounces at 2.08gpt before the end of the year.

 

The immediate focus in the area designated the Southern Zone is to locate Goodenough-style of mineralisation repeated in a host of historical workings along the shear zone.

 

The junior is now spinning up the drillbit at to assess prospects 10km to the south of Goodenough, Spion Kopp and Lady Kathleen/King Dam, that have seen scant attention since 2011, but where historical drilling showed grades up 14gpt.

 

Spion Kopp and King Dam are interpreted as a continuation of Goodenough-style of mineralisation, and are effectively untested. 

 

Mines around the town of Menzies, outside Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, historically produced high-grade ore - around 3.4gpt from open pits and up to 20gpt from underground operations - but as is often the case in older goldfields the ownership of the areas have been fragmented, creating difficulties in systematic exploration.

 

And, as resource cycles have ebbed and flowed, and different companies have had differing priorities, there has been a lack of follow-up on earlier results.

 

Stratum Metals consolidated the area around 2012-13 but "really didn't do much", Price said.

 

The last mining was a small pit at Caeser, which was sent to the Lakewood mill, recovering about 2000 ounces at a head grade of 2.3gpt, "but we are looking for bigger things," he said.

 

Stratum sold out by late 2015 to quit the mining sector, having primarily focused on the 400m area between the Aunty Nellie and Granny Venn pits, with the hope of creating a ‘super pit'.

 

REZ secured the project for A$500,000 cash and $1.6 million in scrip last year, and its timing has been ideal, Price said.

 

The gold price is strong, and there has been a sudden resurgence of interest in areas around Youanmi with spectacular high grade hits around the old Penny high-grade mining area. 

 

Menzies has similar potential with high-grade underground mines never adequately followed up on, Price said.

 

"We have pits that have never been closed off, like 28gpt at the Goodenough, so there is plenty of low-hanging fruit to go after," he said.

 

As the known deposits are no longer as constrained by tenement boundaries REZ can start following mineralisation trends along strike and at depth. 

 

It is not looking to replicate small pit operations like Mount Venn to spark near-term cashflow, but is "looking for the big targets", Price said.

 

"Anything we find that is smaller and mineable, we might look to bring someone in with the skillset to mine it and generate some income, as we did with the Radio mine."

 

To manage the 92sq.km area, it has divided the project into several zones based on differing geological domains.

 

An earlier HeliTEM survey identified 25 high priority anomalies representing drill-ready targets.

 

Among primarily areas of interest are the older resources at Goodenough, Maranoa and Granny Venn, a potential 2km wide corridor that extends 10km north of the Granny Venn/Caesar, and a recently-defined 1.2km-long, 500m-wide soil anomaly with numbers in line with historical high-grade pits within the Springfield-Venn Corridor. 

 

While known primarily for its gold potential, there is potential for other metals, such as nickel.

 

Within its maiden Menzies drilling program, REZ punched a hole into the Four O'Clock electromagnetic anomaly encountered base metals in sulphides above anomalous gold, returning 1m at 0.16% zinc and 1m at 0.2% tungsten within 5m of massive sulphides from 39m, with indications of copper and molybdenum. 

 

REZ shares were last traded at 4.1c, valuing the company at $3.6 million.

 

The junior raised $3 million at 4c last quarter to fund its work at Menzies and planned drilling at the Mount Mackenzie polymetallic project in Queensland. Its interest in WA's Radio gold mine is being funded by new partner Valor Resources.