Vango Mining Ltd (ASX:VAN) has intersected another broad zone of high-grade, near-surface gold mineralisation at the Skyhawk open pit target of its flagship Marymia Gold Project.
The strongest intersection, up-depth of previous drilling at Skyhawk in Western Australia’s Mid-West region, was 16 metres grading at 4.4 g/t gold, including 6 metres at 8.2 g/t.
It follows highly encouraging drill results published a week ago, which intersected 18 metres at 2.0 g/t gold from 76 metres, including 1-metre at 8.5 g/t.
No shortage of near-surface gold
Vango told investors on Tuesday the latest reverse circulation (RC) results confirmed the continuation of a significant zone of near-surface gold mineralisation - into the upper portion of the supergene zone at Skyhawk.
With all results from the first phase of Skyhawk drilling now reported, and drilling at 11 priority open pits completed across 56 holes for 8,914 metres, the focus turns to future drilling and a compilation of open pit resources.
“Having such a broad zone of high-grade mineralisation from such a shallow depth will enhance the economics of any potential future resource at the Skyhawk target,” the company said.
“We are delighted with the results of this first round of open pit-focused drilling at the Skyhawk target, which has reaffirmed and strengthened its significant open-pit potential.”
Drilling program
Results from the remaining 10 open pits will be released as they become available, and the company is targeting a second phase of drilling to test along strike and depth extensions of gold mineralisation.
Skyhawk was the first of 11 priority open pits to be drilled in Vango’s 2021 drilling campaign, which is targeting open pits not currently part of the Marymia resource of 1.02 million ounces at 3 g/t gold.
Vango aims to deliver ‘critical mass’ to increase the mine life of a proposed future mining operation from the resource base, specifically targeting an increase in total ounces to ensure that the mill capacity of any future mining operation is maximised over the project’s total mine life.
The drilling is also being designed to enhance the understanding of mineralised zones within the targeted open pits and to help assess funding requirements for a proposed standalone mining operation.
- Daniel Paproth