Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) has uncovered an ‘extremely high-grade’ shoot via infill drilling which bolsters the early production plan at the Deacon Main area, as part of its namesake project in Western Australia.
Managing Director Darren Stralow says with infill results significantly outperforming the resource estimate in the area, this ‘high-grade’ ore will supplement the early mine plan and ensure strong grades and solid production results occur as it ramps up to full-scale production.
“While this area has the potential to provide upside to the near-term mine plan, we’re also excited about the multiple analogous targets along the Deacon Shear which we can target with further underground drilling as drill platforms become available.”
The $2 billion market capitalisation company is planning more drilling to target analogous ‘high-grade’ shoots as the mine is developed and drill platforms become available.
An additional underground drill rig is currently being mobilised to allow immediate infill drilling to follow-up these targets.
Bellevue reports drilling delivered assays of up to 374 grams per tonne gold, which shows the grade of this new shoot will exceed the resource estimate in the area.
Stralow says the results replicate what the Bellevue Mine was historically known for, which is a ‘very high-grade’ gold contained in short strike structures.
The company says this ore shoot represents a ‘significant’ accumulation of metal in a short strike length. By mid-March development had started to cut the central ‘high-grade’ zone on the 1018 level.
Further, the shoot is reportedly similar to the high pyrrhotite ore shoots mined historically at the nearby Bellevue lode and is characterised by exceptional grade and continuity and remains open down plunge.
The Deacon Shear is host to a contained 1.4Moz of gold in the current global Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) made up of the Deacon Main, Deacon North and Marceline work areas.
Deacon Main is one of the new areas discovered by Bellevue Gold in 2019 and forms a large component of the current Bellevue Mine plan. The orebody is situated 400m in the footwall of the historic Bellevue Mine lode with an analogous mineralisation style to the very high-grade ore shoots historically exploited where some 800,000 ounces was mined at 13g/t gold between 1987-1997.
Access to the Deacon Main orebody was established in October 2023 with the top 1058 development level completed and with stoping currently underway. The decline advance has also allowed for the development of the 1038 levels and accompanying drill access for grade control drilling which has allowed the first close spaced drilling of the deposit on 20m x 10m and 10m x 10m centres.
Infill drilling and the southern development headings have encountered a high sulphide/grade ore shoot, shallowly plunging to the southwest which was not previously defined in the 40m x 40m drill spacing. The company says this ore shoot is analogous to the Bellevue Lode ore shoots mined in the historic mine, with up to 8m true width of massive to semi massive pyrrhotite and abundant visible gold.
To date the new ore shoot has been defined over 45m of strike and 90m of plunge, averages 4m of true width at 52g/t gold (uncut) and with high-grade mineralisation remaining open down plunge. Bellevue says of note is the area of infill drilling the recent results significantly overperforms the MRE used for mine planning.
Bellevue Gold is a gold-focused explorer and developer, currently developing its namesake project that lies 40km northwest of Leinster in the Goldfields region of Western Australia.
As of 31 December 2023, the company had $44.218 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Bellevue Gold
