Strategic Minerals Corporation NL (ASX:SMC) has updated the resource for the Big Vein South gold deposit at its Woolgar Project in North Queensland.
Significantly, the global resource for Big Vein South has increased 76% to 18.4 million tonnes at 2 g/t gold, containing 1.17 million ounces of gold at 0.75 g/t gold.
The new resource estimate represents a 79% increase in tonnes from the November 2015 estimate with a 2% drop in grade and a 76% increase in the number of ounces.
Strategic’s resource update incorporates the 2016 drill program that tested several areas of the previously announced exploration target, principally in and around the Central zone.
The outcomes from the recent drilling in combination with the November 2015 drilling have allowed the conversion of a substantial part of the previous exploration target into inferred resources.
Furthermore, there is substantial potential to delineate additional resources, with an exploration target of 8-12 million tonnes at 1.8-2.1 g/t gold for 0.45-0.65 million ounces of gold.
Gold was discovered at Woolgar over 100 years ago, although systematic exploration did not commence until the late-1970’s.
Epithermal veins were discovered in the 1980’s and were the focus of exploration until the recent discovery of the mesothermal-style Big Vein South deposit.