Bellevue Gold Limited (ASX: BGL) has announced highly encouraging further drill results from the new Deacon & Mavis discovery at its Bellevue Gold project in Western Australia.
The company reported that the recent drilling conducted on broad centres at the Deacon discovery has returned one of the best intercepts at the project to date confirming the presence of bonanza grade ore shoots.
Significant hits include 4.4m @ 62.4 g/t gold; 2.2m @ 38.0 g/t gold; and 3.6 m @ 18.3 g/t gold.
It may be noted that the recently identified high-grade Deacon & Mavis Lode system sits directly below the historic Bellevue underground mine in an area previously undrilled. The company reported that the mineralization is open up & down dip as well as north & south along strike, representing yet another major ‘resource drill ready’ target.
The company announced that the drilling also confirms a new parallel Lode named ‘Mavis’ that contains significant high-grade gold mineralization. Mavis Lode, located 60m into the Deacon Lode footwall returned 2.2m @ 38.0 g/t gold including 1.1 m @ 75.3 g/t gold from 654.6 m.
BGL announced that the drilling is continuing with three drill rigs targeting the new Deacon & Mavis Lodes and three drill rigs targeting shallow infill & step-out on existing resource areas.
Bellevue Gold Project
BGL’s 100%-owned Bellevue Gold Project is 400km north west of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and sits within a high-grade gold and nickel district on the prolific Wiluna-Norsman gold belt.
The Bellevue Gold Project consists of three granted mining licenses M36/24, M36/25, M36/299 and one granted exploration license E36/535.
The Bellevue Gold Mine was a significant underground mine and produced 800,000oz gold @ 15g/t gold from 1986 to 1997 when it closed in a much lower gold price environment.
The new Deacon & Mavis discovery is located immediately below and offset 400m to the east of the Bellevue Mine.
Drilling intersects bonanza grade gold mineralization
The company reported that recent drilling conducted on broad centres at the Deacon discovery has returned one of the best intercepts at the project to date confirming the presence of bonanza grade ore shoots analogous to the Bellevue mine and Viago Lode discoveries.
BGL announced that drill hole DRDD218 has intersected 4.4 m @ 62.4 g/t gold associated with semi-massive pyrrhotite and quartz clasts diagnostic of the bonanza ore shoots at the Bellevue Mine.
This is located 100m from drill hole DRDD130 which intersected 3.6 m @ 18.3 g/t gold from 654.6m.
The hole was completed to follow up the large scale 400m x 120m high conductance modelled Down Hole Electromagnetic Conductor (DHEM), confirming this conductor to host sulphides and gold mineralisation.
The company said that assays are pending for four further holes including two targeting a 150m step out down dip and a further 120m up dip from the central high-grade trend.
The company reported that lode position was intersected in both holes with quartz pyrrhotite veining logged. Mineralisation remains open in every direction.
Mavis Lode
The company announced that a second parallel lode has also been discovered named the Mavis Lode with assays from DRDD130 returning 2.2m @ 38.0 g/t gold including 1.1m @ 75.3 g/t gold from 728.4m. The second parallel lode is located 60m into the footwall of Deacon.
The company said that both lodes are dipping ~650 to the west and striking towards 3400 and are hosted in the same package of mafic units as the Bellevue and Viago Lodes.
Assays received from 10 holes
The company announced that results have now been received for a total of 10 holes from a completed 14 holes targeting the Deacon discovery with Bellevue style biotite shearing which was intercepted in all drill holes with quartz sulphide +- visible gold mineralisation logged in eight of the holes.
Results from the first seven holes include significant intercepts of 4.4m @ 62.4 g/t gold from 692m; 3.6m @ 18.3 g/t gold from 654.6m including 2.2m @ 27.8 g/t gold from 656m and 2.2m @ 38.0 g/t gold including 1.1m @ 75.3 g/t gold from 654.6m (Mavis Lode); 1.8m @ 5.9 g/t gold from 653m; 2m @ 4.2 g/t gold from 669m and 2.4m @ 4.9 g/t gold from 676m; 2.5m @ 5.1 g/t gold from 753m; 2.0m @ 4.9 g/t gold from 748m; and 9.5m @ 0.5 g/t gold from 594.5m.
Updates and next steps
The company reported that Deacon Shear has now been intersected over 1,400m along strike with a recent 300m step to the north confirming the continuation of the shear zone with DRDD105 returning 9.5m @ 0.5 g/t gold from 594.5 m.
BGL said that a new, large, modelled DHEM ‘off hole’ conductor detected in the northernmost hole remains untested and may represent the northern continuation of the Deacon Lode.
The company reported that drilling is continuing at the Bellevue Gold Project with six diamond rigs operating on double shift. Three rigs are currently testing the new high-grade Deacon & Mavis discoveries and also following up on resource step-out targets, while the remaining three drill rigs have commenced infill on shallow areas to upgrade the resource category.
The company said that further study work has commenced to evaluate the potential to dewater the underground development to enable refurbishment and re-entry. Relevant licences for the dewatering have already been received from DMIRS in advance of the evaluation of this option by the Company.
Management comments
BGL’s Managing Director Steve Parsons said: “These recent high-grade drill results & DHEM conductors confirm the presence of very high-grade gold mineralised shoots within the Deacon Lode analogous to the historic Bellevue mine and our Viago Discovery.
It is important to note, the current drilling is on very broad centres and the results received for the initial few holes over the 1,400 metres of strike have comparable intersections and scale to the adjacent Bellevue Lode that was mined from 1986 to 1997 and produced 800,000oz of gold at 15 g/t.”
