Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX:BGL) (OTCMKTS:BELGF) shares are higher after hitting 17 metres at 4.2 g/t gold from 19 metres in its first regional hole drilled on the 20-kilometre Bellevue Trend in Western Australia.
This hole at Government Well prospect is about 7 kilometres from the existing 2.2-million-ounce at 11.3 g/t inferred resource at Bellevue Gold Project.
The prospect has been defined over 1.2 kilometres by field mapping and reverse circulation (RC) drilling has been completed over 500 metres of strike, with assays pending on three holes.
Shares have been as much as 13% higher to 90 cents intra-day.
“Huge scope” to grow inventory
Managing director Steve Parsons said it was an outstanding start to the company’s regional exploration campaign.
“This result supports our view that there is huge scope to grow the inventory at Bellevue,” he said.
“The Bellevue Gold Mine sits within a 20 kilometre-long mineralised corridor which has been subjected to very limited exploration.
“The drilling at Government Well represents our first foray away from the mine area and given the strength of this result, we will conduct follow-up drilling at the first opportunity.”
In parallel with the exploration drilling, the company is finalising its upcoming maiden indicated resource at Bellevue and has initiated economic studies on the project.
Follow-up drilling planned
The four-hole RC program has now been completed at the Government Well prospect, which is the first target tested on the underexplored Bellevue trend.
The intersection hit 17 metres at 4.2 g/t gold from 19 metres, including 3 metres at 9.7 g/t from 19 metres and 3 metres at 11.6 g/t from 33 metres and is 180 metres along strike of an historical RC result of 2 metres at 18.7 g/t from 32 metres in November 2019.
Government Well is north of the Bellevue Mine in a position where the mine trend bends slightly to the northwest along the granite contact.
Drilling has focused on the central 500 metres where shallow previous drilling defined a number of significant drill results.
Follow-up diamond drilling is planned at the prospect to determine whether the shallow pyrite is reflective of retrograde pyrhotite mineralisation suitable for targeting with DHEM as is the case at Bellevue or whether it reflects a new mineralisation style at the project.
Third EIS co-funding grant
While recent work at site has been focused on resource drilling to support the maiden indicated resource at the Bellevue mine project area in support of project development, attention will now turn to continued exploration at a number of high-priority targets within the 20-kilometre corridor.
Extensional drilling will also be carried out at the Deacon and Bellevue Peripheral Lodes to continue to grow the global resource inventory.
Bellevue Gold was also recently the grateful recipient of its third EIS co-funding grant from the West Australian Government to drill the first deeper drill program below 600 metres beneath surface to target repeat lodes beneath the Bellevue and Deacon lodes.