Hill End Gold boosts indicated resources at Big Nugget Hill Deposit in New South Wales by 140%

Hill End Gold (ASX:HEG) has bumped up its indicated resources to 143,000 ounces at the Big Nugget Hill Deposit in New South Wales, a 140% increase on its previously announced indicated resource of 60,300 ounces.

Indicated resources now stand at 1.262 million tonnes at 3.5 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold for 143,000 contained ounces while inferred resources total 944,000 tonnes at 2.6g/t gold for 78,000 contained ounces.

The Big Nugget Hill Deposit remains open along strike and at depth below 150 metres.

Hill End Gold managing director Philip Bruce said, “This significant re-estimate of resources at Hargraves follows the gold price increase and additional drilling on the Big Nugget Hill Deposit.

“The independently reviewed uplift in our indicated resource will lead to a prefeasibility study to assess the potential ore reserves at the deposit and will reinforce our drive to advance our projects to development.

“At the same time we plan further drilling to increase our resource base to over 1 million ounces.”

This significant upgrade of much of the inferred resource to the indicated resource category is the result of an independently conducted due diligence and peer review of the geology and resource estimate within essentially the same portion of the Big Nugget Hill Deposit as used in the previous resource estimate.

About 20% of the total contained ounces and much of the inferred resource is between 150 and 300 metres below surface, where relatively widely-spaced holes have partially intersected the deposit.

The new resource estimate relates to only a portion of the Big Nugget Hill Deposit and estimation is restricted to a zone 800 metres long to an average total depth of about 200 metres.

Widely-spaced deep drill holes indicate that mineralisation continues to at least 400 metres depth.

The new estimation criteria included a reduction in the influence of very high grade intersections, a top cut of 100g/t for larger search criteria and a reduction in the cut-off grade to 0.5g/t.

This increase is an important advance for the Hargraves Project, since under the JORC Code, measured and indicated Resources, in contrast to inferred resources, can be converted to reserves based on project development criteria.

The wholly owned Hargraves Project is located about 30 kilometres south of Mudgee in central New South Wales and was the site of Australia’s first reef gold mining operation.

The project is on exploration licence 6996 which covers multiple parallel gold-mineralised structures with historical gold production, in addition to the main Big Nugget Hill structure.

Hill End Gold is expecting further resource upgrades for the Big Nugget Hill Deposit following:

- An ongoing infill assaying program, which has identified a low grade halo and some high grade material, adjacent to previously reported high grade results;
- Channel sampling and near surface infill drilling;
- Drilling along the strike of the deposit deeper than 150 metres below surface where drill hole spacing is currently widely-spaced; and
- Drilling along strike to the north, about 350 metres, and to the south, about 350 metres, where widely-spaced drilling has indicated that the mineralisation continues.

Originally published at: http://www.proactiveinvestors.com.au/companies/news/20536/hill-end-gold-boosts-indicated-resources-at-big-nugget-hill-deposit-in-new-south-wales-by-140--20536.html