Australian gold producer Bendigo Mining has made another discovery of gold mineralisation at the Henty Gold Mine, located in the north west of Tasmania.
The best drill results included 9.1 metres at 11.8 g/t gold and 3.5 metres at 34.5 g/t gold.
Rod Hanson, Bendigo managing director and chief executive, said exploration at Henty continued to deliver great results.
"We have made a new discovery of mineralisation beneath the Darwin South Zone, adding to recent successes at the Tyndall and Darwin Mid up-dip areas," Mr Hanson said.
"The latest discovery consists of three pods of gold mineralisation, two of which are the continuation of the previously mined Darwin South orebody. The other lode lies further into the hanging wall and offers significant size potential."
Mr Hanson said the discovery, combined with the previous results, should enable the company to further extend the planned mine life at Henty.
"To further increase our chances of success, we have just added a surface drill rig to the current compliment of two underground drill rigs," he said.
"The flow of exploration news from Henty should increase into 2010.”
The Henty Gold Mine is an underground gold mine that commenced operation in 1996 and has produced over 1 million ounces of gold from numerous small but high grade zones of mineralisation. Many of these zones remain open to further drill testing, whilst exploration has also commenced for new gold zones.
Exploration under Bendigo Mining ownership commenced in August 2009. To date the Company has announced extensions of gold mineralisation in the Tyndall Zone (up-dip) and the Darwin Mid Zone (up-dip).
Recent drilling at the deepest levels of the mine, beneath the previously mined Darwin South Zone, has discovered three new areas of gold mineralisation.
Two of the areas are interpreted to be the down-dip extension of the previously mined Darwin South orebody, whereas one is a separate unmined hanging wall lode.
The Darwin South Zone commenced production in 2003 and delivered 297,000 oz of gold from mineralisation some 300 metres long, 210 metres high and 5- 20 metres wide, grading on average 10.9 g/t gold. This result shows the potential value of relatively small ore pods at Henty.
The new lodes have been intersected on three drill sections over a strike length of around 80 metres, with heights of 30-50 metres and having widths of 3-6 metres. The two hanging wall lodes are open at depth and of particular note are also open up-dip and therefore may exist parallel to mined areas.