ASX listed Bellevue Gold has firmly established the Viago lode’s credentials as a high grade gold discovery with drilling returning a stunning intersection of 3 metres grading 85.9 grams per tonne gold from 597m down-hole including 0.5m @ 445g/t gold.
Other impressive intercepts from Viago at the Bellevue gold project northwest of Leinster in the Goldfields, are 6.4m @ 27.9g/t gold from 587.6m including 2.8 m @ 62.8 g/t gold, 6.9m @ 18g/t gold from 535.9m including 0.6m @ 203.3g/t gold and 2.4m @ 36.3g/t gold from 606.8m.
This follows on previous high-grade hits including 4.3m @ 58.8g/t gold from 575.5m, 1.5m @ 23.9g/t gold from 566.3m and 2.8m @ 19g/t gold from 571.65m in separate drill holes.
Importantly, the company said drilling at Viago has demonstrated excellent continuity and consistency of high grades and widths across 800m of strike to date. The ore body remains open in all directions.
Step out drilling will now be carried out to define the limits of the Viago lode.
The presence of multiple untested electromagnetic conductors is also adding some excitement to the program and may indicate the potential for multiple repeats of these high-grade zones within the overall Viago mineralised envelope that is to be drill tested over the coming months.
A maiden resource for Viago is expected to be released before the end of this year, adding to the current mineral resource of 1.9 million tonnes grading a significant 8.2g/t gold for 500,000 ounces of contained gold at the Bellevue project.
In September, drilling at the shallower Tribune lode returned a top intersection of 10.1m @ 29g/t gold from 188.5m down-hole, which included 7m @ 37.9g/t gold.
Another intercept was 2.1m long grading 9.4g/t gold from 299.7m down-hole.
Bellevue Executive Director Steve Parsons said: “These latest drill results from the Viago discovery confirm the lode system as being of exceptional quality and grade.”
“The historic Bellevue Mine was one of the standout high-grade gold mines of the 1980s and 1990s in Australia and the company is now increasingly confident that the Viago and Tribune Lodes will continue that legacy well into the future.”
The Bellevue gold mine was discovered in 1897 and produced 800,000 ounces of gold at an exquisite grade of 15g/t up until its closure in 1997, when low gold prices made extraction of the ore below 450m uneconomical.
Bellevue is a quality, Archaean, high-grade quartz vein system hosted in numerous shear zones which are strongly gold endowed and very prevalent throughout the WA Goldfields region.
Its deposit setting compares very favourably to other large, long-life underground gold mines currently operating in the region such as Jundee, Darlot and Sons of Gwalia.
The project also benefits from excellent infrastructure such as grid power, sealed roads, water and an airport.
