Bellevue Gold Ltd (ASX:BGL) is focused on enhancing and growing the golden bounty at its namesake Bellevue Gold Project in Western Australia through development plans and aggressive exploration.
The company has established a three-pronged dual exploration and development strategy comprising investment in low capital underground drill platforms and developing towards high grade areas, ongoing exploration to grow the resource and de-risk the development pathway and lastly a $35 million exploration program.
Key exploration activities
Bellevue’s $35 million budget is set to span across 18 months, focusing on simultaneously increasing the indicated category and growing global resource.
Key activities to increase the indicated resource include:
- Infill drilling to 40 metre x 40 mere spacing;
- Grade control drilling to de-risk early stage mine schedule;
- Two drill rigs;
- Around 30,000 metres of surface drilling; and
- Around 30,000 metres of underground drilling.
Exploration drilling to increase the global resource will include:
- Around 42,000 metres of surface drilling;
- Around 20,000 metres of underground drilling;
- Around 5,000 metres of EIS drilling focussing on deeper targets; and
- 10,000 metres of follow-up to recent Government Well discovery targets.
Part of the $35 million exploration spend will utilise existing infrastructure to accelerate exploration and reduce capital intensity of exploration spend.
Bellevue has stated in its latest investor presentation that around $40 million of development capital will give early access to high-grade areas.
The company’s recent $100 million institutional placement to investors provides flexibility to accelerate development and activities at Bellevue, with a view to finalising economic studies in Q1.
Current development timetable