Nagambie Resources discovers second antimony-gold vein system at Victorian flagship project
The discovery of a second gold-antimony vein system at Nagambie’s mine increases the company’s confidence in finding more veining systems to the west.
Located just 40km from Australia’s only producing antimony-gold mine, Nagambie Resources (ASX: NAG) has made a big leap forward at its own project with the discovery of a second antimony-gold vein system.
A wildcat hole at the company’s Nagambie mine in central Victoria, which was testing to the west of its C1 system, has intersected that second system, now named C2.
That drill hole returned two mineable intersections: one at 1.68m estimated horizontal thickness (EHT) at 10.4 grams per tonne gold equivalent and the other at 1.25g/t EHT with 7.1g/t gold equivalent.
The 10 high-grade intersections reported so far within the C1 and C2 vein systems average 16.3g/t gold equivalent, or 6.3% antimony and 4.3g/t gold.
‘Greatly increased confidence’ for other vein systems
The Nagambie project is located 40km from the operating Costerfield antimony-gold mine owned by Canada’s Mandalay Resources.
That mine processes 150,000 tonnes per annum and is producing 70,000 ounces at an all-in sustaining cost of less than $1,000 per ounce.
To date, the orebodies and grades at Nagambie are similar to those at Costerfield.
Nagambie Resources said the discovery of the C2 system greatly increases its confidence in the structural model that predicts additional veining systems to be discovered to the west.
The company is now considering bringing in a second drill rig to fast-track the resource drilling program.
Wildcat hole opens up big possibilities
Nagambie Resources executive chairman Mike Trumbull said intersecting two potential stopes in the C2 vein system with the company’s first wildcat hole is an “exceptional” result.
“Success in locating C2 greatly increases the likelihood of progressively locating C3, C4, C5, etc., to the southwest of the West Pit, as predicted in the model,” he added.
“We are now considering a very significant ultimate target to 1,000m vertical depth, but we are committed to exploring from underground as soon as possible.”
Partner building mill
Nagambie Resources is working with unlisted Golden Camel Mining, a company based in Fosterville and with several gold projects in the area.
The two companies have received approval for the construction and operation of a carbon-in-leach gold toll treatment plant at the Nagambie mine.
Golden Camel will fully finance all construction and commissioning costs, and thereafter the net operating cash flow will be shared on a 50:50 basis.
A future antimony flotation circuit is also planned.
The gold mill will initially treat ore from Golden Camel’s projects.