While the mine only recently started production, drilling in the Deacon area has delivered grades of up to 374 grams per tonne in a new shoot that is expected to boost early returns from the mine. The results hinted there could be six more similar shoots not yet spotted in drilling.
Deacon is one of five areas being mined at the project and hosts 1.4 million ounces of the 3.1Moz defined at Bellevue since the historical mine was subjected to modern discovery drilling in 2017.
Managing director Darren Stralow said the discovery was “characterised by exceptional grade and continuity and remains open down plunge”.
Assays from the new shoot include 10.8m at 66.8gpt, 14m at 49.4gpt and 9m at 71.1gpt and appear close to true width.
The potential for the six new shoots in the greater Deacon Main area is evidenced by broad-spaced drilling that has returned 30m at 11.33gpt, including 2.7m at 61.6gpt, 8.7m at 34.4gpt, and 4.8m at 55.7g pt.
Stralow said the drilling returned the same sort of short but high-grade shoots the mine was known for.
Bellevue has decided to rush a new underground drill rig to the area to define more metal it can mine in the earliest stages of development.
“While this area has the potential to provide upside to the near-term mine plan, we’re also excited about the multiple analogous targets along the Deacon Shear, which we can target with further underground drilling as drill platforms become available,” Stralow said.
Over the past seven years, drilling has been largely limited to surface exploration and resource definition.
It is only recently that the company’s underground development has allowed it into the guts of the orebodies, with the early results encountering mineralisation in high pyrrhotite ore shoots similar to those mined historically at the nearby Bellevue lode.
Some 800,000oz grading 13gpt gold was recovered between 1987 and 1997.
Deacon was only discovered in 2019 and sits 400m in the footwall of the historical Bellevue mine.
The 1.2Mtpa Bellevue mine was officially opened last week.