Pacgold Strikes High-Grade Gold in South Australian Drilling Campaign
Pacgold Limited has made a significant breakthrough with the discovery of shallow, wide, and high-grade gold during initial mineral resource drilling at its wholly owned White Dam project in South Australia. This development marks a crucial step forward in enhancing open pit designs and upgrading resources, setting the stage for a potential production restart.
Drilling Success at Vertigo Open Pit
The Vertigo open pit is one of three key areas targeted for resource upgrades this year as part of an ongoing reverse circulation (RC) drilling campaign. Initial assays from the drilling have aligned closely with the existing block model published in 2020, confirming the accuracy of earlier projections. Once drilling at Vertigo concludes later this week, the company plans to extend the campaign to the Hannaford and White Dam North resources with additional infill RC drilling.
The RC drilling at Vertigo covered a 500-metre strike length, focusing on infill holes to upgrade the resource from inferred to indicated status. Since late November, 123 holes totaling 8,003 metres have been completed, demonstrating the project's rapid progress.
Notable Assay Results and Mineralisation Details
The Vertigo orebody is characterised as a strata-bound lens, ranging from 5 to 25 metres in width and dipping shallowly to the southeast. Recent drilling efforts have tested the down-dip potential of the mineralisation, yielding impressive results. Standout hits include a 4-metre section grading 2.9 grams per tonne (g/t) gold and 0.79 per cent copper from 56 metres, within a broader intercept of 15 metres grading 1.6g/t gold and 0.48 per cent copper from the same depth.
Further testing at depth revealed a 15-metre section grading 1.6g/t gold from 60 metres, extending the mineralisation an additional 60 metres below the pit floor and remaining open at depth. The under-drilled nature of Vertigo was highlighted by a substantial 14-metre run grading 0.7g/t gold from the surface, a newly identified outcropping intersection on the upper north-western edge of the pit that supports potential cutback of the historic open pit.
Strategic Mine Optimisation and Future Plans
Pacgold is currently focusing on firming up potential shallow, low-cost, and easily accessible ore. By prioritising this ore in mine optimisation and schedules, the company aims to reduce early working capital requirements while stripping back the main pits at Vertigo and Hannaford to access primary orebodies. Managing director Matthew Boyes stated that once each pit is fully drilled, new resource models and pit optimisation studies will be completed, with a target of early September to finalise this work. Subsequently, the company will proceed with permit submissions to mine White Dam North and expand existing Hannaford and Vertigo pit operations.
Progress on Restarting Production at White Dam
Work on restarting production at White Dam has advanced rapidly. With the heap-leach pad now under irrigation and re-crushing of the final lift set to begin this quarter, Pacgold anticipates achieving first gold production in the coming months. The project, located 80 kilometres west of Broken Hill in the Curnamona Province, spans 877 square kilometres of mining lease and exploration tenure.
The proven heap-leach operation includes a recently re-lined pond and heap-leach pad, a fully operational gold extraction plant, and two previously mined open-pit mines. Infrastructure such as haul roads, water sources, generators, and an established mining camp is already in place, facilitating a smooth restart. Between 2010 and 2018, the mine produced 180,000 ounces of gold, and it currently hosts a 4.6-million-tonne resource grading 0.7g/t gold for 102,000 ounces, excluding gold still on the heap leach pads.
Future Processing and Resource Potential
Pacgold plans to re-crush a significant portion of the remaining material on the leach pad, with up to 750,000 tonnes available for processing beyond the initial 250,000-tonne campaign. As drilling, modelling, and mine planning converge this year, the company is quietly assembling the building blocks for a restart at White Dam. If ongoing drilling continues to confirm shallow, mineable ounces, the former producer could soon boost its resource, polishing up the historic mine for a renewed attempt at gold production.
