Superior Resources Limited announced a substantial Mineral Resource upgrade for its 100%-owned Steam Engine Gold Project, located 210kms west of Townsville, Queensland. On an owner-operated processing plant basis, incorporating lower grade ore than considered under a toll treatment model, the Mineral Resource stands at 4.18 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t Au for a total of 196,000 ounces Au, representing a 60.7% increase in total Resources and an 80.6% increase in the total Measured and Indicated categories (JORC, 2012). The revised Mineral Resource reflects the highly positive effect of infill and expansion drilling completed during 2021, focussed mainly on the Steam Engine Lode.

Conversion of lower confidence Resources to Indicated and Measured was the primary objective of the 2021 program. The Company recently reported significant upside potential for the project, expanding the total additional lode potential to over 14 kilometres in areas surrounding the known lodes and within a 6 km corridor between Steam Engine and the Bottletree Prospect. Considering that the upgraded Resource has been developed over only 1.3 kilometres of lode strike, the Company will focus on aggressively drilling the lode extension zones during 2022.

The updated JORC, 2012-compliant Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the Steam Engine Gold Project (Project) incorporates data from all reverse-circulation (RC) and diamond drill holes completed by Superior during 2020 and 2021, including data from historic RC holes. The total drilling comprises 314 holes for 22,733 metres, with the Steam Engine Lode accounting for 16,182 metres and the Eastern Ridge Lode, 3,983 metres. The estimation process considered two scenario models, requiring the modelling of two separate MREs: High Grade Model ­ Toll treatment model; and Low Grade Model ­ Owner operated processing plant model.

The two scenarios were selected on the basis of preliminary studies indicating that lode intersections of 1.0 g/t gold and above would likely be viable for a toll treatment operation and that lode intersections of 0.3 g/t gold and above would likely be viable for a SPQ owned and operated processing plant operation. The low-grade model would only be viable if a sufficient amount of additional open-pit ounces can be defined from further drilling. The purpose for assessing the two scenarios was to assist in determining the most beneficial development pathway for the Project.

A project strategy study that is examining a range of scenarios, including Mineral Resource targets for the low-grade model, is currently in progress. The upgraded JORC, 2012 Measured, Indicated and Inferred MREs total: 4.18 Mt at 1.5 g/t Au for 196,000 oz Au (Low Grade Model; 0.25 g/t Au cut-off); and 2.72 Mt at 2.0 g/t Au for 171,000 oz Au (High Grade Model; 1.0 g/t Au cut-off). Compared to the March 2021 MRE, the upgraded MRE represents an 80.6% increase in total Measured and Indicated Resources under the low-grade model and a 65.7% increase in total Measured and Indicated Resources under the high-grade model.

The Resource estimations were conducted using inverse distance-weighted block modelling of the gold mineralisation zones. Grade top-cutting of greater than 50% was applied to three multi-ounce per tonne intersections (135 g/t Au, 184 g/t Au and 115.2 g/t Au) for the purpose of normalising the very high grade intersection values to 60 g/t Au. These very high-grade ounce per tonne assays suggest a new high-grade population that is likely to indicate the existence of high grade gold shoots within the mineralisation zone.

The Mineral Resources that have been estimated for the Project relate mainly to infill drilling over a combined 1.3 kilometres of strike length at the Steam Engine and Eastern Ridge lodes and to an average vertical depth of less than 100 metres. Exploration work conducted by the Company during 2020 and 2022 has identified several corridors totalling over 14 kilometres in length that have significant lode extension and new lode potential.