Bellevue Gold has announced exceptional infill drilling results from its Bellevue gold project in central Western Australia. The drilling has intercepted the Deacon Shear at the predicted lode position and returned consistent high-grade mineralization.
The Deacon Lode is an analogue to the adjacent, previously mined Bellevue mine about 350 meters (m) west of Deacon, with a moderate westerly dip and gently plunging high-grade mineralized shoots associated with semi-massive pyrrhotite and quartz clasts.
Detailed results have been received from a total of 16 drill holes completed as infill at the Central Deacon discovery, where a maiden inferred resource of 410,000 ounces (oz) grading 12.3 grams per metric ton (g/mt) gold was recently reported. The recent drill holes close the drill spacing from the original 80-m centers to 40-m centers over a portion of the Central zone as a first pass assessment of how the lode will respond to infill drilling.
The recent drilling has also highlighted an important new high-grade shoot within the Deacon envelope containing a very high metal content. Intersections from this shoot are in excess of 250 g/m and appear similar to the Level 13 shoot at Bellevue, which produced high-grade gold mineralization from the historic mine.
Deacon remains open in all directions. The recent infill drilling points to the potential of further high-grade shoot definition within the Deacon Corridor with step-out exploration along strike and down dip.
The total inferred resource at the Bellevue project currently stands 2.2 million oz grading 11.3 g/mt gold.
Operational activity on site is ongoing, with dewatering of the existing underground mine proceeding to plan and initial inspections used to determine the refurbishment required to regain access for drilling and eventual development highly encouraging.
Geotechnical, metallurgical, and mining studies are also well under way.
(www.bellevuegold.com.au)