Thick, shallow gold extends Pacgold pit in South Australia

Pacgold has hit a brace of broad, shallow gold intersections both inside and outside the defined resource model at its Vertigo deposit in South Australia, potentially paving the way for a resource upgrade and an expanded open-pit at the producing asset.

The company’s latest drilling campaign was aimed at shallow extensions of the existing resource and appears to have hit the mark, returning a thick 28-metre hit grading 0.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a remarkably shallow 2-metre depth, including a higher-grade 3-metre core at 4.1g/t gold from 12m.

Other notable results from resource infill drilling included a 12-metre hit running 2.5g/t gold and 0.5 per cent copper from 65m and another hole at an impressive 3.9g/t gold and 0.89 per cent copper over a substantial 16-metre intercept, which will likely increase the resource confidence in an upcoming upgrade.

The latest results are from the final assays of a resource drilling program at Vertigo, one of three defined mineral deposits at Pacgold’s broader White Dam project.

‘In time, these will become very low cost and highly profitable ore, that we can bring forward in our eventual mine planning phase.’

Pacgold managing director Matthew Boyes

The drilling was designed to both upgrade the confidence in the existing resource and test for shallow extensions on the northern and north-eastern edges of the deposit model, and the company appears to have knocked it out of the park.

Pacgold says the new intersections provide a strong indication of the potential to expand Vertigo’s inventory, with the extensional ounces likely to add serious low cost ounces to the project’s bottom line, once open pit mining activities recommence.

Pacgold managing director Matthew Boyes said: “Pacgold’s exploration team keeps delivering strongly, with these results from areas outside previously tested zones demonstrating the clear potential we have at White Dam to delineate multiple zones of shallow oxidised ore close to the existing resources and increase our overall resource inventory. In time, these will become very low cost and highly profitable ore, that we can bring forward in our eventual mine planning phase.”

The White Dam project was acquired by Pacgold late last year, in a bid to become an accelerated gold producer and cash in on booming gold prices. The project historically produced 180,000 ounces of gold from heap leach operations between 2010 and 2018, at prices less than half those today.

The White Dam acquisition included multiple established open-pit mines, a heap leach facility and a fully operational gold extraction plant.

The company recently celebrated its first gold doré bar pour from said plant, underscoring a lean cost base and income as it pulls on multiple levers to expand its gold resource.

The addition of more shallow, easily accessible ounces right next to the existing pit could certainly help fast-track open-pit activities, as Pacgold simultaneously explores multiple avenues to boost production through re-crushing existing stockpiles and toll treating ore from nearby mining partners.

The current mineral resource for the Vertigo deposit, which is adjacent to the processing facility, stands at 1.7 million tonnes grading 0.7g/t for 38,300 ounces of contained gold. The new data will now be rolled into a fresh resource upgrade, slated to drop early in the third quarter of this year.

In the meantime, Pacgold is wasting little time chasing the new shallow zones, with drilling set to resume shortly to add even more ounces ahead of the updated resource model.

The company says it will also continue the drilling blitz at its White Dam North, Rolling and Hannaford exploration prospects from July, with the whole program scheduled to be wrapped up by the end of the third quarter.

Pacgold went looking for more low-cost gold right on the edge of its existing pit and it appears to have found it. With a gold pour in the books and an updated resource just around the corner, the potentially much bigger Vertigo deposit could become the next near term money maker for this exciting junior gold producer.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au