Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR) has extended the depth and strike of gold mineralisation at the Wagtail underground mine in Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
A drilling program targeting the Rowdies and Wagtail ore bodies has returned strong results of up to 2.34 metres at 63.12 g/t gold, including 0.9 metres at 83.65 g/t.
Overall strike length appears to be slightly longer than at the nearby Nicolsons mine and drilling to date suggests that the same grades and widths can be expected.
The mine that is being developed is about 1 kilometre south of the processing plant at Nicolsons.
Extension to Nicolsons ore system
Managing director Paul Cmrlec said: “Ongoing drilling at Wagtail has returned fantastic results along the entire known strike of the ore bodies.
“This demonstrates that we are dealing with an extension to the Nicolsons ore system.”
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Extensional exploration drilling has been ongoing at Wagtail since late 2016.
One of the deepest holes drilled to date targeting the Rowdies mineralisation returned 1 metre at 18.51 g/t gold from 261.45 metres downhole, or 222 metres vertically below the surface.
This intersection is only 400 metres south of the South Decline being mined at Nicolsons.
It confirms that Wagtail mineralisation is a continuation of the ore system being mined at Nicolsons and is structurally controlled by the Archer Fault.
Other results include 1.75 metres at 20.19 g/t including 0.98 metres at 34.4 g/t, 0.8 metres at 17.51 g/t, 1.05 metres at 14.77 g/t, 0.8 metres at 20.3 g/t and 0.8 metres at 35.6 g/t.
Updated resource estimate
Pantoro is completing an updated mineral resource estimate and ore reserve calculation for Wagtail.
This is expected to be available during the current quarter and the results to date indicate this will be a strong share price catalyst.
The company is up almost 4% to 32 cents in early trade after reaching a 12-month high of 33 cents last month.
“This is a very busy period in the continued growth at the project,” Cmrlec said, “with production ramping up at Nicolsons, mining commencing at Wagtail and the installation of ore sorting in the processing plant well advanced.
“The combination of these advancements will see the site reach its expanded production rate target of 80,000-100,000 ounces per annum by the end of 2018.”
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Open pit mining was completed at Wagtail in December 2017 and Pantoro is focused on starting underground mining via portals in the Wagtail North and Wagtail South open pits.
The portal positions have been prepared for development, and additional equipment required to begin decline development is on site.
Pantoro expects that underground mining at Wagtail will start by the end of this month once regulatory approvals are finalised.
The Nicolsons operations are within the Halls Creek Project in Western Australia’s north.