The company on Monday reported sulphide mineralisation had been extended up to 400m below the limit of the Gonneville resource pit shell, indicating the potential for material growth into a future underground resource category.
Chalice said an exceptional intersection of 16 metres at 10.2 grams per tonne palladium-platinum-gold, 0.2 per cent nickel, 0.4 per cent copper, 0.02 per cent cobalt from 330m at the northern base of the Gonneville pit-shell highlighted the potential to deepen it.
Recent step-out drilling has also extended Gonneville laterally, which will feed into an expected resource upgrade for the 330 million-tonne resource next month.
Managing director Alex Dorsch said with each new round of drilling results, the scale, quality and potential upside of Gonneville just kept getting better and better.
“Notwithstanding the district-scale opportunity that exists along the 30km-plus Julimar complex to the north, these latest drill results from Gonneville have reminded us of the obvious growth potential just at Gonneville itself,” he said.
“Importantly, everything we drill at depth continues to remain open.”
Mr Dorsch said the indications from recent drilling were that Gonneville had the potential to be a very long-life, open-pit and underground mine, without taking into consideration anything that might be found to the north.
The company is expecting to report further drilling results soon with five diamond rigs and one RC rig continuing step-out, infill and metallurgical drilling at Gonneville.
However, Chalice is yet to secure environmental approval to continue its drilling activities in the Julimar State Forest to the north of Gonneville.
