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- Infill and extension drilling completed on Vertigo resource
- Shallow oxide mineralisation identified in new northern and western extensions
- Update of Vertigo MRE to be delivered in September quarter
- Drilling planned to be completed in July
Pacgold (ASX:PGO) is planning to fast-track the re-start of mining of the Vertigo deposit on the White Dam gold project east of Broken Hill in South Australia’s Olary Province.
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Drilling of a priority one program at Vertigo was completed in March in a drilling campaign designed to support an upgrade of the Inferred resource category (currently 75% of the resource) to Indicated category on the Vertigo Pit 2020 MRE, by infilling the historical drilling undertaken by previous owners.
During this initial program a total of 178 holes for 10,526m was undertaken, with several holes encountering very shallow gold mineralisation not previously included in the MRE on the northern and eastern margins of the historic open pit, providing potential to increase the resource size.
A further 102 holes for 2,904 m were completed on these extensions in May and June to assess grade distribution and support inclusion in the updated MRE.
A recent review and interpretations of historical geochemical, geophysical, drilling and structural data has identified significantly under-explored corridors with potential to host both near surface oxide and deeper sulphide mineralisation adjacent to the existing mines and prospects on the White Dam ML’s, including Hannaford (200,000 ounces plus), Vertigo (100,000 ounces plus) and White Dam North (20,000 ounces plus).
“These excellent shallow oxide intervals represent a very material win for PGO in respect to fast tracking the restart of the Vertigo mine and getting shallow low-cost oxide dirt onto the old pad while extending the ore leaching capacity with the new pad expansion,” MD, Matthew Boyes, said.
“The development from ore discovered north and east of the pit will drastically reduce pre-strip costs and bring forward gold production with high recovery, shallow oxide ore and reduce the overall working capital requirement to mine the full Vertigo mine.
“I am very keen to see the new resource model in early Q3 and the subsequent mine design and cashflow forecasts for the Vertigo mine as this will be the first of the White Dam assets to be put back into full production while we expand the White Dam North and Hannaford resources and also kick off our highly anticipated regional exploration program.”
Vertigo is the first of the three published (2020) MRE zones to be drilled. An updated MRE is now in progress with external consultants, with an anticipated completion in August, followed by new open pit optimisations and mine designs.
Drilling commenced at White Dam North in early July to infill and potentially extend the 2020 MRE. The drilling program will then move to test for extensions to previously defined gold mineralisation at Rolling Prospect immediately south of White Dam North, and then to the Hannaford pit to infill and potentially extend the 2020 MRE, with the entire program scheduled to be completed by the end Q3.
PGO was up 4.76% to 11.0¢. Mkt cap $45.45M.
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