HIGGINSVILLE’S CHALICE UNDERGROUND RESOURCE INCREASES 58% TO 123,000 OUNCES
Avoca Resources Limited (Avoca) is pleased to announce that following the completion of 13 diamond drill holes and a subsequent re-interpretation of historical diamond drilling from the Chalice deposit, located wholly within the 100% owned Higginsville Gold Project, it has increased the Chalice underground Inferred Resource by 58% to 741,000t @ 5.2 g/t gold for 123,000 ounces (above a 3 g/t gold lower cut off). The successful additions to the resource provide Avoca with sufficient encouragement to commence a pre-feasibility study to investigate the commencement of underground mining at Chalice. Developing Chalice as the second underground mine within the Higginsville Gold Project is a high priority for Avoca as it will confirm the re-establishment of the region as a multi-mine gold district. Chalice, which produced 566,000 ounces of gold mostly from an open pit in the 1990s, is located 30km south-west of Avoca’s newly commissioned 1 Mtpa CIL treatment facility at its Higginsville Gold Project located in Western Australia. Access between Chalice and the Avoca’s treatment facility is by established mine road and highway. The Chalice project was acquired by Avoca in July 2007. Following the increase in the Chalice resource, the Higginsville Gold Project has a resource base of 12.25 million tonnes @ 3.7 g/t gold for 1.45 million ounces (see Appendix I for breakdown of this consolidated resource). The new resource estimate at Chalice comprises two mineralised shoots; named Atlas and Olympus, located below the 1150mRL (see Figure 1 below). The new surfaces are based on a re-interpretation of, and discovery of extensions to, the Deeps 1 and Deeps 3 surfaces as named by a previous owner. The mineralisation at Chalice has a shallow north plunge which is similar to that seen at Trident. Avoca is confident that the Chalice resource will continue to grow as the current resource is: (i) open at depth, and (ii) based only on mineralisation located beneath the existing underground workings below the 1150mRL. Additional mineralisation is known to exist above the 1150mRL, and below the open pit.48883
AVO Price at posting:
$2.00 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held