'Expanding at depth': Bonanza gold grades for Predictive Discovery justify deeper drilling

Predictive Discovery (ASX:PDI) uncovered some bonanza grade gold results — like 17m at 31.9 g/t — from four diamond drill holes (1,033m) at its Bankan project in Guinea.

In April last year, the long-time West African prospect generator rocketed from 0.7c to 7c per share – a 900 per cent gain – on a new gold discovery.

The $170m market cap stock has since increased those gains to an eye-watering ~2200%.

The initial drilling program at North-East Bankan by Predictive in 2020 returned numerous shallow, thick, and high-grade gold intercepts like 10m at 26.52 grams per tonne (g/t) gold. The hits have just been getting bigger.

New drilling has now intersected:

49.7m at 11.7 g/t from 301m, including 17m at 31.9 g/t from 313m (within which 7m at 50.3 g/t); and
55.6m at 5.7 g/t from 237m, including 40m at 7.3 g/t from 239m.

Anything above 5g/t is generally considered high grade. The new results have revealed a high-grade gold core zone which extends down-dip for over 250m and is open at depth.

Plus, early stage power auger drilling returned results of:

20m at 0.7 g/t from 4m, including 4m at 3.3 g/t from 4m; and
20m at 1.3 g/t from 4m, including 4m at 6.0 g/t from 4m.

Predictive will now focus on defining this new high-grade zone by infill and extension drilling.

Results justify deeper drilling

“Following up our recent, previous best-ever intercept of 44m at 8g/t with a significantly broader and higher-grade gold intercept 100m to its north is simply remarkable,” managing director Paul Roberts said.

“Added to that, on the new drill section reported here, we can see a clear progression of both increasing grade and grade consistency as we drill deeper.

“Furthermore, with these new results, we now have a high-grade gold zone which is 100-200m long, extends down-dip for over 250m and, very promisingly, is open at depth.”

Until now, NE Bankan has been shaping up as a large gold deposit with excellent geometry for a large-scale open pit mine, Roberts said.

“These new results have added a whole new dimension to the project as it now appears that the core of the deposit contains consistently higher grades in a zone which is expanding at depth,” he said.

“This offers clear justification for drilling deeper on this deposit.”

Defining the high-grade zone

The drilling planned for the maiden resource estimate is now complete and also includes one additional deep DD drill hole to the south of the known deep gold zone – assays are pending.

Currently, one multipurpose RC-DD rig is on site and will drill both deeper holes and infill drill holes within the inferred high-grade zone.

Roberts said the immediate task is to define the new high-grade zone by infill and extension drilling.

“To this end, the multi-purpose drill rig currently on site will be focused on further defining and extending this zone over the next few months,” he said.

“Elsewhere, we continue to obtain broad, good-grade shallow gold intercepts at Bankan Creek and are continuing to obtain encouraging gold results in our regional auger program, adding to our inventory of regional drill targets on the Bankan Project.”

The company is working with a Senegal-based drill contractor to bring a truck mounted air core rig on to site for use during the rainy season to test the accumulating number of new targets defined by power auger drilling over the past 9 months.