Vango Mining Ltd (ASX:VAN) has hit multiple, broad gold intersections from the fourth of 11 open pits at the flagship Marymia Gold Project in WA’s Mid-West.
The gold explorer and project developer reported on eight holes drilled at the Prickleys Open Pit, an area previously mined when gold went for a fraction of its current price.
Fast forward to today, and Vango has fielded more than 1 g/t gold from six of the eight holes at Prickleys — all of which returned greater than 0.5 g/t.
A second drilling phase is planned to follow up a series of broad intersections
Drilling at the gold target forms part of the broader 2021 season, in which Vango is testing 11 priority open pits in a bid to expand Marymia’s resource base.
It’s hoped this initiative will one day sustain a standalone mining operation at the WA project, which could be a company-maker.
The results are in
Drilling at the Prickleys Open Pit was designed to test for extensions to historical gold hits and repeating structures at depth.
In conjunction with historical intersections, the latest drilling results have extended the depth of the mineralised zone at Prickleys.
The highlights include:
- 10 metres 1.6 g/t gold from 116 metres, including 3 metres at 4.3 g/t from 116 metres;
- 4 metres at 1 g/t from 45 metres, including 1-metre at 3.5 g/t from 116 metres;
- 10 metres at 0.3 g/t from 128 metres, including 1-metre at 1.3 g/t from 135 metres;
- 6 metres at 0.5 g/t from 139 metres, including 1-metre at 1.2 g/t from 143 metres; and
- 13 metres at 0.7 g/t from 150 metres, including 1-metre at 2.6 g/t from 153 metres.
Specifically, this mineralisation lies within steep structures that have returned high-grade gold intersections, fielding as much as 29.1 g/t in previous programs.
A second phase of drilling at Prickleys will test this mineralised zone further, investigating the tenor of the mineralisation to determine its resource potential.
Ultimately, these results continue to strengthen the open-pit potential at Marymia.
Next on the agenda
Drilling across all 11 open pits is now complete and will contribute to a resource upgrade planned for 2022.
The program included almost 9,000 metres of reverse circulation drilling across 56 holes.
Results from the first phase of drilling at the Skyhawk, Parrot, Apollo and Prickleys pits have been reported, while assays are anticipated for the remaining seven targets.
Vango plans to conduct a follow-up, second phase of drilling at all targets that deliver positive results in the completed first round of drilling, to test for further extensions of gold mineralisation to add to the Marymia resource base.