Bellevue Gold boosts global gold resources to more than a million ounces at namesake project

Bellevue Gold (ASX: BGL) has boosted global resources at its Bellevue project to more than 1 million ounces of contained gold after debuting its maiden estimate for the Viago Lode, which it says is one of the highest-grade gold discoveries world-wide.

The maiden inferred resource for Viago totals 0.8 million tonnes at 22 grams per tonne gold for 550,000oz of the precious metal.

“The global resource base has now increased to over a million ounces at an impressive 12.3g/t gold in less than 12 months since we commenced drilling at the Bellevue project,” Bellevue executive director Steve Parsons said.

According to Bellevue, the Viago Lode remains open, with the company expecting to add to the maiden resource in the coming months.

“As the geological understanding of this very high-grade gold system increases, we have numerous high-priority targets to progress to expand the current resource inventory and we intend to continue exploration drilling targeting for resource expansion,” Mr Parsons said.

“We look forward to keeping the market informed of progress of this exciting discovery as exploration progresses and we move towards an updated resource estimate in the first quarter of 2019,” Mr Parsons added.

Bellevue gold project

The maiden resource for Viago was published within four months of the discovery drill holes, with Bellevue calculating it has firmed up the 1.04Moz of contained gold, at a cost of $15/oz, over the last 12 months.

Mr Parsons believes the Western Australian project is one of Australia’s “highest-grade gold discoveries” in recent times, with only a handful of undeveloped gold deposits containing more than a million ounces known globally.

Viago is less than 150m from historic Bellevue underground mine, with Viago mineralisation also “very similar” in style to Bellevue.

Resource expansion drilling is underway, with two diamond core drill rigs testing the Viago and Bellevue mineralised corridors.

Down hole electro-magnetic surveying has continued identifiying significant conductors along strike at Viago and indicates the “strong potential” for the lode system to continue.

“Bellevue believes the Bellevue gold project has a reasonable prospect of eventually being mined by taking into account the depth, thickness and grades of the deposits and proximity to existing infrastructure such as roads and power,” the company stated.

Bellevue wholly-owns the project which spans more than 4,000sq km in WA’s mid west. The project has access to grid power, sealed roads, water and services at nearby Leinster, Leonora and Wiluna. Bellevue is also close to several major gold and nickel operations in the region.

By mid-morning trade, shares in Bellevue had shot up almost 9% to $0.37.