Vango Mining Ltd (ASX:VAN) has made solid progress toward its goal of adding to the Marymia Gold Project high-grade resource of 1 million ounces at 3 g/t in Western Australia, intercepting economical gold hits during drilling at the Rosella and Exocet open pits.
Vango’s 2021 open-pit drilling campaign consists of two phases, the first of which – targeting 11 open pits for 8,914 metres of reverse circulation (RC) drilling over 56 holes – has been completed, with results reported from the Skyhawk, Parrot, Apollo, Prickleys, Ibis and Exocet open pits along with the first three holes from Rosella.
Gold intercepts of note from three of five drill holes at Rosella deposit include:
- 1-metre at 4.0 g/t gold from 54 metres;
- 3 metres at 10.0 g/t from 80 metres, including 1-metre at 27.0 g/t from 80 metres; and
- 11 metres at 4 g/t from 83 metres, including 6 metres at 6.6 g/t from 85 metres.
Rosella Open Pit
The company has interpreted Rosella to be a faulted-off continuation of the Parrot Open Pit. It hosts well-defined gold mineralisation along a northwest dipping structure within mafic rock (high-density, low silica intrusions) and near the bedrock contact, with sediments in place.
Vango believes previous drilling below the existing Rosella pit has shown great potential, designing its current drill program to test for continuity of gold mineralisation at depth. The drilling has been successful in validating this approach.
Assay results extend the known gold zone significantly and add to existing historical intercepts from below the current pit, which include:
- 8 metres at 10.5 g/t gold from 44 metres;
- 7 metres at 5.3 g/t from 83 metres, including 1-metre at 29.7 g/t from 86 metres;
- 2 metres at 4.4 g/t from 24 metres;
- 5 metres at 2.8 g/t from 71 metres;
- 5 metres at 5.4 g/t from 59 metres;
- 8 metres at 3.6 g/t from 69 metres;
- 12 metres at 2.1 g/t from 76 metres; and
- 8 metres at 3.7 g/t from 81 metres.
Assays from two more holes at Rosella are pending, with drill hole VRORC0005 interpreted to have drilled to the south of the late fault that separated Parrot and Rosella.
Exocet Open Pit
Four of five holes drilled at Exocet intercepted notable gold within an interpreted low angle thrust, complementing historical intercepts from drilling outside the Exocet pit.
The drill program was intended to test mineralisation below and adjacent to the historical pit. Vango believes there is significant potential at depth and to the northeast of these historical workings.
Drilling at Exocet has confirmed the mineralisation systems continue beneath the deposit, returning assays of:
- 1-metre at 1.1 g/t gold from 83 metres;
- 6 metres at 1.3 g/t from 68 metres, including 1-metre at 3.7 g/t from 72 metres;
- 1-metre at 2.8 g/t from 97 metres;
- 2 metres at 0.8 g/t from 55 metres;
- 3 metres at 0.9 g/t from 71 metres, including 1-metre at 1.1 g/t from 72 metres; and
- 1-metre at 5.2 g/t from 135 metres.
These results are surrounded by historical intercepts outside of the initial pit, which have the potential to define a mineable resource, with further intercepts to the northeast that may provide another economic zone.
Next steps
Vango has targeted 11 priority open-pits in its 2021 drilling campaign, designed to add to the existing Marymia resource base and deliver ‘critical mass’ to this base to support a proposed standalone mining operation.
Results have been reported from the first phase of drilling, with four more pits’ assays still outstanding.
Vango plans to conduct a follow-up, second phase of drilling at all targets that deliver positive results from the first round of drilling, to test for further extensions and add to the Marymia resource.
About Vango Mining
Vango Mining is an exploration company with the aim of becoming a high-grade gold miner through developing the 100%-owned Marymia Gold Project in Western Australia's Mid-West.
The Marymia Project comprises 45 granted mining leases spread over a 300 square kilometres area and has an established high-grade resource of 1 million ounces at 3 g/t, underpinned by Trident deposit with 410,000 ounces at 8 g/t.