Orinoco Gold recovers 1,442.61g/t gold from Cascavel
Orinoco Gold has uncovered the highest grade gold yet from its Cascavel project in Brazil.
Orinoco Gold’s (ASX: OGX) bonanza gold run at its Cascavel project in Brazil has continued with the company returning up to 1,442.61 grams per tonne gold in its latest panel sample batch.
The panel sections were grabbed from the Mestre level six target at the southern end of the mine, with Orinoco collecting 28 samples.
Better gold results from the 10kg sections were the abovementioned 1,442.61g/t, as well as 993.20g/t and 343.31g/t, with the average for the 28 sitting at 323.69g/t.
The samples were tested twice with the first round of testing returning up to 1,999.95g/t gold, with an average of 323.69g/t gold.
Eight sections assaying above 180g/t gold were then reanalysed which revealed up to 1,442.61g/t gold and an average sample grade of 496.30g/t gold.
According to Orinoco, the grade difference in the two tests was a result of the mine’s nugget effect.
Meanwhile, this latest panel batch has generated the highest gold grades this year, with the company now opening up Mestre level seven to find out if the grades continue.
The previous five batches reported a combined average grade of 38.79g/t gold.
“The marked difference continues to support our view that the more we mine, the more we find, and that the further down we go into Cascavel, the grades appear to improve,” the company stated.
Chasing Brazilian gold
Orinoco controls around 200 square kilometres of prospective tenements in Brazil including the Cascavel project where mineralisation remains open at depth and along strike.
Drilling to-date indicates the gold mineralisation may widen at depth.
When the Cascavel mine was initially commissioned in 2016, it failed to recover economic levels of gold. A subsequent review found the gravity circuit that had been installed was not suited to processing the unique Cascavel gold mineralisation.
Late last year, Orinoco took a “back to basics” approach and installed a hammer mill to crush the ore into smaller particles to facilitate larger gold recoveries.
Since then, hammer mill trials have consistently generated high-grade gold.
During the June quarter, hammer mill three was commissioned, with Orinoco mining 3,781t to produce 219.53 ounces of gold.
After reaching an intraday high of $0.046, Orinoco ended the day at $0.042 – down 2.33%.