Pantoro hunting for more gold at Nicolsons

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The board of ASX-listed gold miner Pantoro has approved an accelerated exploration programme at its Nicolsons project, in Western Australia, to increase the project’s resource base.

Pantoro said on Thursday that both surface and underground drilling would be undertaken at Nicolsons, with exploration activities to include increased drilling activity, extensive geochemical sampling programmes and geophysical surveys to identify additional targets across the company’s assets.

The additional drilling follows an updated mineral resource and reserve estimate for the Nicolsons project, which is estimated to host a mineral resource of some 1.58-million tonnes, at 7.43 g/t gold for 376 701 oz of gold, and a mineral reserve of 773 252 t, grading 7.35 g/t gold for 182 823 oz.

This was a 62% increase on the previous reserve estimate, after accounting for mining depletion.

“Pantoro commenced gold production at Nicolsons less than two years ago. Since that time, we have undertaken major production increases and expanded exploration efforts using cash flow generated from the operation,” said Pantoro MD Paul Cmrlec.

He noted that both the Nicolsons and Wagtail projects have consistently outperformed the previous ore reserves estimates, and Pantoro continued to encounter high-grade mineralisation at both assets.

“This mineral resource and ore reserve upgrade has produced substantial mine life extension and exploration results during the past year have proven the huge potential of this project. We continue to believe that we have only scratched the surface at Halls Creek with plenty of upside to come,” Cmrlec said.