This article is a sponsored feature from Mining.com.au partner Pacgold Limited. It is not financial advice. Talk to a registered financial expert before making investment decisions.
The past year has been a defining one for Pacgold (ASX:PGO), which is rejuvenated and ready to dive into a busy 2025, including exploring an area “that’s larger than the area covered by the Kalgoorlie Super Pit”.
The strategy of 2024 has been centred around a general refresh of the junior explorer, which has received a cash injection, beefed up the skills on its board, and identified key areas to reduce costs.
This means 2025 is all about “drilling, drilling, drilling”, Managing Director Matthew Boyes tells Mining.com.au.
“In the last quarter we’ve achieved a lot, recapitalised the company with a fresh equity raise, started drilling for the first time in the year, and successfully completed both the reverse circulation and aircore programs, which will set us up for drilling next year,” says Boyes, who joined Pacgold in late August.
He adds that a board refresh has brought in some skilled new directors who will help Pacgold into the next phase of its life.
Alongside that, the company sold the old plant and generally advanced the rehabilitation of the old mine site at its flagship Alice River Gold Project in Queensland, moves that Boyes says “all lead to cost savings”.
The Alice River Project has a footprint that extends over 30km in strike, and so far Pacgold has only drill-tested less than 5% of that total strike. The project covers the site of a past gold mining operation.
Boyes says the Central area was the first drilled, and sits on one of seven granted mining leases in the 377km2 land package controlled by Pacgold.
“Historically, it has produced 30,000 ounces of gold at 5.5g/t, so it demonstrates the potential the area has,” he explains.
“The Southern target area and Jerry Dodds were also historically mined with very high grades of gold being excavated at what are very limited areas of outcrop.
“The entire area is covered with alluvial sands and made historical exploration difficult, hence the importance of the aircore program we’ve just completed.”
In early December, Pacgold wound up an aircore program of 7,185m of drilling across 749 holes along 14km of strike.
Revamped strategy sets stage for growth
Not long after reporting the completion of that program, initial results showed Pacgold had uncovered a coherent high-grade gold-arsenic anomaly extending for 1.4km in strike and up to 200m in width, which remains open along strike at the Shadows prospect.
Drilling also revealed a new geochemical zone, dubbed Apache, 300m west of the Shadows prospect, and extended the Posie South prospect.
With results received from just 18% of the samples dispatched so far and having defined an additional large-scale target zone in excess of 1.4km of strike and open at both ends, with some “very high grades”, Pacgold already has multiple follow-up targets for drilling in the new year.
Boyes, who says the results so far bode well for the extensive reverse circulation program planned, wants to see at least 20,000m of drilling go into Alice River in 2025.
“If we can achieve that it would be a great milestone, Alice River is an asset that will only be understood with a lot of drilling,” he tells this news service.
“To give you an idea of scale, the Southern target and Jerry Dodds area have a strike extent of 4km — that’s larger than the area covered by the Kalgoorlie Super Pit. There is a lot of space in there for a compelling discovery.”
Queensland is perhaps better known for its large coal mining industry, and more recently for its extensive critical minerals prospectivity with the greater global focus on clean energy, but it is not one of the first regions that necessarily springs to mind when it comes to gold prospectivity.
However, district-scale potential does exist, it just hasn’t been subjected to the same extensive modern day exploration that places like the Western Australian and Victorian goldfields have.
Prior to Pacgold’s acquisition of the Alice River Project in December 2020, there was little modern exploration undertaken and the company believes North Queensland has huge potential on the gold front.
“Large tonnage intrusive related gold systems like Alice River can become tier-one assets, and there has been limited exploration in this part of the world,” Boyes says.
“The Palmer River alluvial gold field produced millions of ounces of gold and nobody has found the source to date so that demonstrates the area is well endowed with gold mineralisation.”
Palmer River was the largest producing alluvial goldfield in Australia and is credited with being largely responsible for the growth of places like Cooktown, Port Douglas, and Cairns.
In the 1900s, there were several underground mines up to 40m deep and extending for over 3km, producing 3,000 ounces @ 30 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
In the late 1980s, there was open pit mining to 40m, producing 30,000 ounces @ 5.6g/t gold, and by the late 1990s, colluvial and alluvial ore was mined producing 3,000 ounces @ 2.5g/t.
The region is home to several gold operations like the 1,883km2 Pajingo Gold Mine, which was discovered by Battle Mountain Gold Company in 1983 and has produced more than 3.4 million ounces since 1996.
Now owned by Yuxin Holdings, Pajingo currently produces around 80,000 ounces of gold per annum.
Also in the region is the 10-million-ounce Ravenswood Gold Operation, which includes the 1-million-ounce Mt Wright underground mine.
Queensland’s hidden gold belt
Significant untapped opportunity and new targets have been identified through the application of the latest intrusion-related gold system exploration models and modern reprocessing of historical geophysical data.
The Central, Southern, and Northern targets at the Alice River Project cover 7km of the gold-bearing shear zone.
Pacgold previously made a high-grade discovery on the F1a zone at the Central Target and expanded this zone below the historic open pit, reporting results including 8m @ 55g/t and 17m @ 9.3g/t gold.
Meanwhile, at the Southern Target, the company reported a notable intersection of 4m @ 22.7g/t gold.
Geological mapping, geochemical sampling and induced polarisation surveys were successful in defining new targets for assessment along the 30km structure, including Posie, Jerry Dodds, Victoria, and White Lion.
Pacgold has pinpointed numerous targets along strike from Posie in the north all the way down to White Lion in the south.
Boyes says the system is starting to demonstrate repeatability along strike of zones of high-grade mineralisation.
“It’s purely a matter of drilling the best aircore anomalies and building a better understanding of the controls on mineralisation,” he explains.
In 2025, Pacgold’s focus will be on infilling zones within the Central, Northern, and Southern targets ahead of the release of a mineral resource estimate.
At the same time, the company will work on progressing the highly prospective regional targets.
Write to Angela East at Mining.com.au
Images: Mining.com.au & Pacgold
