logo-loader

Pantoro continues exploration push to extend life of gold mine

Published: 15:35 31 Jul 2017 AEST

The word 'growth' underneath ascending stairs
Pantoro’s objective is to commence underground mining at Wagtail within 12 months.

Pantoro (ASX:PNR) has been focused on growing the Mineral Resource over the past 15 months, primarily around the existing underground mine at its 100% owned Nicolson’s Project in Western Australia.

The company produced 11,828 ounces of gold in the June quarter, up 14% on the March quarter and 77% on the previous June quarter.

Gold is being produced from both open pit and underground mining at Pantoro’s Nicolsons gold mine.

Increased production from the operation has allowed Pantoro to commence testing of additional targets within the broader tenement package, with the focus on evaluating a second underground mine beneath the Wagtail open pits which are currently being mined.

Preliminary first pass and follow up drill testing of other prospects has been undertaken during the June 2017 quarter with encouraging results.

Going underground from the Wagtail pits

Drilling beneath the Wagtail open pits continues to return high-grade gold intercepts, with widths and grades similar to Nicolsons.

Combined with the outstanding open pit mining results to date, confidence in the underground mining target at Wagtail continues to grow.

Surface drilling is now be undertaken on a continuous basis (day and night shift) to accelerate the development of underground mining targets beneath the pits.

Pantoro’s objective is to commence underground mining at Wagtail within 12 months.

Drilling is delivering in the Nicolsons underground mine

Drilling at Nicolsons has further extended the known strike length of the Johnston Lode at depth with additional high-grade results

Following the recent Nicolsons resource update, drilling has continued to focus on the potential extensions to the resource particularly at the Johnston lode.

Drilling in the September 2017 quarter will focus on infilling the projected position known as the wedge at the southern end.

New emerging targets

Exploration to date has revealed Paddock Well and Western Reef as potential economic gold zones.

Follow-up drilling at Paddock Well has increased the strike length of high grade mineralisation to 100 metres.

The follow-up program was primarily completed using reverse circulation methods to establish the presence of mineralisation along strike, and additional follow up programs using diamond drilling are demonstrated to be warranted as the next step.

Western Reef was the subject of historical small scale mining in 2001 when circa 1,362 tonnes grading 9.37 g/t gold were reported to have been mined from the top few metres of the outcropping vein.

The old workings were backfilled by the historical operators. First pass shallow reverse circulation drilling has returned encouraging results.

Pantoro brings Scotia underground development forward

Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR, OTC:PNTOF) managing director Paul Cmrlec sits down with Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’s review of its current mining strategy. The company is bringing forward the underground development at Scotia Mine within the Norseman Project in Western...

on 17/1/24