Bellevue Gold Limited (ASX: BGL) reports that extensional and infill exploration drilling at the Bellevue Gold Project in Western Australia has intersected high-grade mineralisation both outside and within the existing known Resource boundary.
Drilling has been continuing on site and has included infill drilling to upgrade the Indicated Resource later in the December quarter and the resumption of exploration step out drilling at the project.
Managing Director Steve Parsons said the company’s investment in exploration drilling continued to create significant value for Bellevue stakeholders.
“We have hit more high-grade mineralisation in previously-untested areas,” Mr Parsons said. “These results extend the known limits of the mineralisation.
“At the same time, our infill drilling continues to return strong results which should help drive an increase in the Indicated Resource.
“This all points to a larger overall mineralised envelope with more gold in the high-confidence Indicated category, which in turn gives us even greater scale while continuing to de-risk the project.”
Step out drilling at the Deacon Lode has resulted in three new extensions to the known mineralisation. Following a review of the potential offset across the cross-cutting alphabet faults, drill hole DRDD487 was completed targeting the interpreted offset position of the Deacon Main lode.
The hole intercepted strong pyrrhotite mineralisation at the projected position and returned an assay of 3.5m @ 10.6 g/t gold from 387.5m. The nearest drill holes are over 200m in every direction.
Drill hole DRDD495 was drilled at the northern-most end of currently defined Deacon structure and intercepted 1.4m @ 63.2 g/t gold from 434.9m associated with a large and previously untested Down Hole Electromagnetic (DHEM) plate. Mineralisation remains completely open to the north and up dip in this direction.
Finally, hole DRDD466 was drilled down-dip at Deacon North at the deepest position to date and intersected 9.3m @ 5.8 g/t gold from 757.3m, again mineralisation remains open down dip.
Infill drilling at Deacon to 40m x 40m centres has also continued to deliver significant intersections in advance of a scheduled upgrade of the Indicated Resource category in Q4 2020. Resources at Deacon currently stand at 430,000oz @ 18.0 g/t for 250,000oz of Indicated and 1.5Mt @ 9.2 g/t for 440,000oz of Inferred.
Recent drilling has also focussed on targeting high-grade extensions to mineralisation located in the Bellevue Lode, which is away from existing stopes. These areas are close to existing development which will require refurbishment to access. A previously unknown lode position has been discovered in the footwall along with a number of additional high-grade intercepts extending known mineralisation.
Mr Parsons said the company is evaluating where lodes positioned in the northern Bellevue lode can be factored into the mine schedule and is aiming to convert further mineralisation to the Indicated category for the Q4 upgrade.
