Commodities, Exploration/Development, Gold, News

Bellevue Gold to grow mine life after drilling success

Gold Road

Bellevue Gold has hit high-grade gold intersections outside of its namesake project in Western Australia, setting the stage for an upgrade to its 1.4-million-ounce resource and a mine life extension.

The latest results from underground drilling at the Deacon North lode returned assays of 7.4 metres at 16.9 grams per tonne of gold from 485.5 metres and 3.1 metres from 31.9 grams per tonne of gold from 518.9 metres.

Bellevue will continue optimisation work on the mine to extend its life and improve production after the first five years.

The project’s resources and reserves are currently at 1.56 million ounces in the life of mine.

According to Bellevue’s stage 2 feasibility study, its namesake mine is expected to deliver an average production rate of 200,000 ounces per year for the first five years and an average production of 183,000 ounces per year over an eight-year mine life.

“These results provide more strong evidence of Bellevue’s immense growth potential,” Bellevue managing director Steve Parsons said.

“The stage 2 feasibility study is based on a total resource of 1.56 million ounces, meaning there is already another 1.4 million ounces of resources outside the current life-of-mine plan.

“These results highlight the scope to upgrade a significant proportion of this additional resource with infill drilling, which will in turn drive further potential increases in annual production and mine life, and therefore financial returns.

“This will enable us to keep unlocking the value of our exceptional resource and the production infrastructure we already plan to have in place.”

Bellevue is preparing for 110,000 metres of drilling between now and its forecast first production in June 2023.

Almost half of the project’s global resource sites are outside of the stage 2 feasibility study and not in the life of mine.

 

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