Aphrodite commences new drilling at eponymous gold project

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Aphrodite Gold (ASX: AQQ) has kicked off the next phase of Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling at the company’s Aphrodite gold project located 65 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.

The company currently has a Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for development of the project in progress having completed a positive Scoping Study earlier this year.

The drilling program is expected to total around 7,000 metres and will involve drilling of the Alpha and Phi Lodes, which host the existing Aphrodite gold deposit JORC resource containing 7.31 million tonnes at 2.75 grams per tonne gold for 645,000 ounces (Indicated) and 2.87 million tonnes at 4.30 grams per tonne gold for 395,000 ounces (Inferred) totalling 10.18 million tonnes at 3.18 grams per tonne gold for 1.04 million ounces.

The company hopes to enhance the classification of the resource for future mine studies, which will form part of the PFS.

Aphrodite said it will also be testing cross cutting lodes between the Alpha and Phi (referred to as the Epsilon structures) to ascertain their resource potential.

Exploratory drilling conducted by Aphrodite to date has reported narrow, medium to high-grade gold intersections.

The company indicated that should this drilling be successful a maiden JORC resource estimate will be completed for the mineralised corridor between the Alpha and Phi lodes.

The company also intends targeting other gold prospects to better ascertain their resource potential.

Its objective is to identify and delineate additional resources during the PFS and subsequent feasibility studies to improve the currently estimated nine year life of the project, project economics and overall gold production profile.