Dacian Gold Ltd (ASX: DCN) has received “outstanding” results from in-fill drilling of its recently discovered high-grade Phoenix Ridge deposit near Laverton in Western Australia.
Dacian Executive Chairman, Rohan Williams, said the results are expected to underpin an upgrade of the existing Inferred Resource of 481,000 tonnes at 8.1g/t Au for 125,000oz, due to be completed next quarter.
The latest results include:23.1m @ 30.2g/t Au from 266.9m; 19.1m @ 5.1g/t Au from 223.6m; 2.4m @ 47.5g/t Au from 313.35m; and 10.2m @ 3.0g/t Au from 235.6m.
Mr Williams said the new intersections, which come from a recently commenced 40m x 40m infill drilling programme have confirmed the continuity of the high-grade gold mineralisation. The infill drilling has also identified a new high-grade shoot lying less than 50m into the hangingwall of the main lode that comprises the Phoenix Ridge Mineral Resource.
The new hangingwall lode has been defined over a plunge extent of over 350m and remains open at depth. None of the newly-defined high-grade shoot is accounted for in the maiden 125,000oz Mineral Resource at Phoenix Ridge.
“The outstanding results from the 40m x 40m infill drilling are significant because they confirm the continuity of the high-grade mineralisation, reinforcing the potential for Phoenix Ridge to develop into a new, near-term high-grade production source,” Mr Williams said.
If the three key focus areas for ongoing drilling focus continue to yield positive results, we are confident there is an excellent opportunity to bring Phoenix Ridge into the near-term production schedule at Mt Morgans,” he said.
Drilling is continuing at Phoenix Ridge with the focus on three key areas:
- Completing the 40m x 40m infill program, which is expected to underpin a resource upgrade to the Indicated category in the first quarter of next year;
- Testing the interpreted near-surface expression of the Phoenix Ridge deposit; and
- Testing the extents of the newly-defined hanging wall shoot at depth.
The Phoenix Ridge deposit was discovered by testing the interpreted at-depth extensions of the Morgans North open pit that was mined by previous operators at Mt Morgans during the 1990s.
The Morgans North open pit sits 500m north of the Westralia open pit and is hosted by the same banded iron formation (BIF) unit that is currently being mined underground at Beresford.
