Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR) has confirmed the presence and continuity of two additional high-grade lodes at Wagtail Underground Mine, providing strong upside for the Halls Creek gold operations in WA's Kimberley region.
Development and drilling have defined a North Striking lode and a northeast oriented splay lode (REV Lode) which currently has a strike length of 50 metres and vertical extent of 100 metres.
Both lodes have been defined over four levels and remain open down dip, with further drilling planned to extend the currently defined ore zones.
“Potential upside”
The sulphide-rich REV Lode appears to be a direct analogue to the Mother/Darcy lodes at Nicolsons, which provided significant upside in the early stages of the project's development.
Pantoro is confident these new lodes could have a similar effect at Wagtail.
Managing director Paul Cmrlec said: “The discovery of these new lodes is great news for the Wagtail mine, and for the Halls Creek Project as a whole.
“The splay lodes at Nicolsons provided significant value to Nicolsons mine, and this discovery has the potential to provide the same upside at Wagtail.
“The deepest drilling in the lode has returned some of the most exciting results to date, and the team at Halls Creek eagerly awaits the development of additional drilling platforms to enable the full drill out of this lode.“
REV Lode
Recent drilling results from the REV Lode and the North Striking Lode have returned high-grade intersections including:
- 18.05 metres at 38.99 g/t gold from 34.35 metres (drilled down dip and through intersection of REV and new North Striking Lode);
- 14.95 metres at 14.7 g/t from 59.85 metres (drilled down dip and through intersection of REV and existing Rowdies Lode);
- 3.59 metres at 82.4 g/t from 52.95 metres;
- 2.65 metres at 15.57 g/t from 30.5 metres;
- 2.3 metres at 9.4 g/t from 29.9 metres;
- 0.45 metres at 64 g/t from 43.55 metres; and
- 0.88 metres at 46.5 g/t from 55.82 metres.
Additional drill programs are planned to further extend the REV Lode down dip as drill positions become available.
Plan view of 2110 level showing recent development on the REV lode.
Linking structure
Development to date on the 2110 Level REV Lode has returned an average 0.6 metres wide (true width) vein at 21.65 g/t over a strike length of 50 metres.
The REV Lode appears to be a linking structure between the current RNE Lode and the new North Striking Lode in the hanging wall, which was discovered after initial development of the REV Lode, and to date there has been limited drilling in this area.
Development is underway on two additional levels, being accessed from established drives.
Pursuing profitable production
The company is continuing to explore for mineralisation extensions at Nicolsons and Wagtail and is focused on its strategy of pursuing profitable production from both projects.
Cmrlec said: “In addition to REV Lode extensions, we continue to test the existing lodes outside of the current mineral resource envelope and look forward to reporting extensions to mineralisation which may further increase the mine's life.”