Mining

Bellevue’s high-grade gold discovery keeps on giving with 47% increase in contained metal

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By Lorna Nicholas - 
Bellevue Gold ASX BGL resource high-grade discovery Viago Tribune Southern Belle

Inferred resources at Bellevue’s namesake project now total 4Mt at 11.8g/t gold for 1.53Moz of gold.

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Bellevue Gold (ASX: BGL) has continued to shore up one of Australia’s highest-grade gold discoveries at its namesake project after posting a 47% increase in contained gold, with the resource also comprising an impressive grade of 11.8 grams per tonne.

The Western Australian project’s inferred resource now totals 4 million tonnes at 11.8g/t gold for 1.53 million ounces of the precious metal.

This represents a 47% growth in contained gold and a 50% increase in tonnage at the project from the existing October resource of 2.6Mt at 12.3g/t gold for 1.04Moz of contained gold.

“The exploration team has discovered and delineated in excess of 1.5Moz of high-grade gold in just over 12 months since resource drilling commenced and at a very low discovery cost of less than $15 per ounce,” Bellevue managing director Steve Parsons explained.

“The latest upgrade, once again, confirms the exceptional quality of the Bellevue gold project, which is globally one of the highest-grade and fastest growing projects and we are confident further drilling will continue to rapidly advance the resource base in 2019,” he added.

According to the company, the resource upgrade reflects drilling from the Bellevue Surrounds mineralisation, with mineralisation remaining open in all lodes.

The resource was calculated on mineralisation from surface to 600m depths and is adjacent to a historic mine, which produced about 800,000oz of gold at an average grade of 15g/t.

Making up the project’s global resource is Bellevue Surrounds, and the Tribune and Southern Belle lodes. The resource also includes the very high-grade Viago Lode, which adds 800,000t at 22g/t gold for 550,000oz.

Mr Parsons previously referred to the Viago Lode as one of the highest-grade gold discoveries globally.

Exploration continues

Mr Parsons said Bellevue was focused on firming up further gold ounces via a step-out drilling program, with four drill rigs currently at the Viago Lode and Western Corridor.

“We anticipate the next round of drill results in the very near future and a further resource upgrade in a few months’ time during the second quarter,” Mr Parsons added.

By early afternoon trade, Bellevue’s share price was up almost to 2% to $0.52.