In 2016, when Bellevue Gold (ASX:BGL) picked up its namesake historic mine, the explorer noted that major miner Barrick had offloaded it years earlier “due to no ‘Barrick sized targets’”.

Unfortunately for Barrick, Bellevue has now defined 1.8moz grading 11.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold in less than 18 months — making it one of the fastest and highest-grade gold discoveries in the world.

The stock is up over 250 per cent over the past 12 months.

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And this gold was “hidden in plain sight”, adjacent to the historic gold workings which produced 800,000oz between 1986 and 1997.

Today’s resource update represents a 25 per cent increase in tonnes, a 17 per cent increase in contained gold metal and only a 5 per cent reduction in grade, Bellevue says.

High-grade gold mineralisation remains open everywhere.

Bellevue has five diamond drill rigs currently targeting the Viago, Tribune and Bellevue Surrounds lodes for further resource growth, as well as “higher confidence” infill drilling throughout 2019.

An exploration update is anticipated this quarter, based on new discovery drilling at Deacon, where visible gold was found in extensions below the historic underground, and a Viago “look-a-like” lode that is returning +100g/t gold rock chips.

There’s also multiple untested near mine targets to check out.

The company has a handy $20m in cash to maintain the ongoing drilling campaign and site works throughout 2019.

“It is an exciting time for the company with the resource estimate continuing to grow and early development and permitting works beginning to advance with the addition of a project director to the Bellevue team,” says managing director Steve Parsons.

“The company anticipates continuing progress over coming quarters with our growth and de-risking strategy to advance the Bellevue gold project back into a high-grade gold operation.”

 

In other ASX gold news today:

Ausmex (ASX:AMG) says drilling at the high-grade historic Falcon gold mine – one of eight within the so-called “Golden Mile” – continues to define more high-grade gold “suitable for a large-scale bulk mining operation”. Results include 7m at 13g/t, less than 40m from surface:

And mineralisation­­ remains open, Ausmex says. The stock was up 4 per cent to 13c in morning trade.

 

Fosterville was once a middling 100,000oz-a-year open pit operation, until Kirkland Lake Gold (ASX:KLA) uncovered incredibly rich gold grades at depth. This has transformed the marginal Fosterville into the one of the lowest-cost and most profitable gold mines in the world.

Today, Kirkland Lake Gold announced 140,701oz produced in the second quarter alone, a 10 per cent bump on the previous quarter. The mine remains on track to achieve astonishing full-year 2019 guidance of between 570,000oz and 610,000oz.