Ethical and environmentally sustainable gold explorer Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) reports it has received ‘high-grade’ gold drill intercepts from an ongoing 1,500m diamond drilling (DD) at its Red Hill mineral resource, as part of its Hill End Gold Project in New South Wales.
The results, generated by the first 3 diamond drillholes, have confirmed historic drilling at the resource by returning gold grades of up to 30g/t Au near surface and demonstrate the presence of shallow mineralisation over ‘significant’ widths, which the company believes to be open.
‘Significant’ intercepts include, 24m at 2.80g/t Au from 74m including 16m at 3.78g/t Au from 74m and 1m at 30.80g/t Au from 79m (VRHD004), as well as 2m at 8.42g/t Au from 106m (VRHD004) and 12m at 1.01g/t Au from 4m including 1m at 8.07g/t Au from 15m (VRHD001).
The current drilling represents the first phase of a multi-stage drilling program and commenced with a goal of targeting strike and depth extensions to known ‘high-grade’ mineralisation at Red Hill to add ‘significant’ tonnage to the existing Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
Addressing the results, Vertex Mineral’s Executive Chairman, Roger Jackson said: “We are pleased to be getting immediate ‘high-grade’ drilling results with the first drill holes in our program which follows up targets generated from the reinterpretation of the old drill data.
“We are pleased to be getting immediate ‘high-grade’ drilling results with the first drill holes in our program”
As the program continues we look forward [to] adding more gold to the mineral resource for inclusion into mining studies and eventually the maiden ore reserve for the project. This work will provide the foundation for the establishment of a new mine.”
The company also notes that the current drilling aims to increase the MRE within 75m of surface, which will deliver the foundations of a low-risk production plan to restart processing operations at Red Hill.
The existing MRE at the project forms about 1km of the total 14km strike length and currently sits at 80,000oz Au at 1.7g/t to 150m depth.
In addition, an existing 100% owned and permitted processing plant exists within the resource area and delivers an opportunity to the company to develop a low-cost gold mine with a small environmental footprint.
Vertex Minerals is an Australian based gold exploration company with a vision of achieving commercial production of gold from its Hill End gold projects. The company’s Red Hill project is located within the ‘highly prospective’ Eastern Lachlan Fold Belt in Central West New South Wales and comprises three granted exploration licences, one gold lease and ten mining leases which cover a total land area of 76km-square.
With drilling still ongoing, Vertex Minerals announces that it will continue to release further results as they come to hand.
Images: iStock
