Westgold Resources Limited (ASX: WGX) has commenced a diamond drilling programme at the high-grade Great Fingall Deeps Project near Cue, Western Australia.
Fingall Deeps represents a near-term development opportunity with significant upside potential that can expand Westgold’s gold production from FY24.
Highlights
- The historic Great Fingall mine is one of the highest-grade gold deposits in WA – having produced 1.2Moz
- @ 19.5g/t Au between 1891 and 1918
- Great Fingall currently has defined Mineral Resources of 1.11Mt @ 8.52g/t Au for 305Koz – representing the Company’s highest grade Mineral Resource. This resource remains open down-dip/plunge
- Fingall Deeps drilling programme comprises ≈10,000m of diamond core drilling – to test an additional ≈250m of down plunge mineralisation beneath the currently defined Mineral Resources between 1km and 1.2km below surface
- Drill programme underway – and will take ≈four months to complete.
This drilling is a major milestone for Westgold,” Westgold Managing Director, Wayne Bramwell, said.
“Grade will always be king and high-grade gold assets like Great Fingall are rare. As such we are taking a very measured and systematic approach to its evaluation during FY23.
“The size of the prize here is large as Great Fingall is a key pillar of our growth strategy. It targets production of more high-grade tonnes from our portfolio into FY24 to enhance our profitability and we look forward to announcing results from this program as they become available.
Fingall Deeps 2022 Drill Programme
The objective of the Fingall Deeps drilling programme is to test an additional 250m of down plunge mineralisation beneath the currently defined Mineral Resources to expand and provide greater certainty of the deeper gold resources.
This information will then be used to inform a subsequent planned Feasibility Study to bring Great Fingall and Golden Crown into production targeting 20-25ktpm @ 5-6g/t Au.
The drill programme will comprise ≈10,000m drilled from three “parent holes” each with multiple “daughter holes” to provide at least a further 10 drill intersections of the Fingall Reef system. The program will take approximately four months to complete, and results will be reported as they become available.
Great Fingall – An Overview
The historic Great Fingall gold mine, along with the nearby Golden Crown gold mine, is located 6km southwest of Cue, in the Murchison region of WA. Collectively, these two mines have historically produced ≈1.5Moz of gold from high-grade quartz reefs hosted by the Great Fingall Dolerite.
Drilling completed by Westgold and its predecessors to date has defined Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources totalling 1.11Mt @ 8.52g/t Au for 305Koz. The majority of these Mineral Resources are located within a ≈300m continuation of the westerly plunging reef system below the base of the historic workings (≈700m below surface).
A deep exploration hole drilled by Westgold in 2019 confirmed these Mineral Resources remain open as the hole intersected the Fingall Reef system some 900m down plunge below the base of historic workings.
Great Fingall mineralisation is related to a simple quartz vein/reef system which strikes northwest and dips ≈600 southwest with associated “flatter” hanging wall and footwall spur reef systems.
