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PNX’s Glencoe shaping up as another Fountain Head with more near-surface gold
Mining
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Near-surface gold at PNX’s Glencoe deposit in the Northern Territory now exceeds 1.4km and remains open, demonstrating the potential to grow to a similar scale as the company’s Fountain Head project just 3km to the south.
PNX Metals (ASX:PNX) is continuing its successful run at Glencoe, with new drill results showing more near-surface and high-grade gold, which now extends for over 1.4km.
Top hits included 2m at 8.58 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 10m, 6m at 3.84g/t from 36m, 8m at 1.52g/t from 80m, 20m at 1.01g/t from 72m, 5m at 1.61g/t from 11m, and 12m at 1.05g/t from 43m.
Glencoe currently hosts an inferred resource of 2.1 million tonnes at 1.2g/t for 79,000 ounces of contained gold.
But there’s plenty more blue sky with PNX not even close to hitting the edges of this potentially large-scale system that remains open in all directions. PNX is now preparing to release an updated resource.
“Glencoe continues to strengthen with infill and extensional drilling complementing our previous results and supporting the increased scale potential of the deposit,” managing director James Fox said.
“Additional holes drilled along the easternmost traverse returned high-grade gold and the deposit remains open in all directions.”
Fox said geological comparison with Fountain Head suggested a gold system of similar scale.
“PNX expects with the recently reported drilling and improved geological understanding an increase in the overall contained ounces reporting to the proposed mining plan,” he said.
“We look forward to our 2022 exploration campaign with diamond drilling due to commence in late January, whereby we aim to add further value at Glencoe and across our entire Pine Creek exploration package.”
Of the 54 reverse circulation holes drilled by PNX at Glencoe, only six extended beyond 80m vertical depth because the company’s priority was delineating near-surface gold lodes to maximise the potentially mineable gold.
Near-term production opportunity
Located about 170km south of Darwin and 3km north of PNX’s Fountain Head gold project, Glencoe represents a ‘bolt-on’ asset that has significantly expanded the proposed Fountain Head development.
Fountain Head – which currently has a resource of 2.94 million tonnes at 1.7g/t for 156,000oz of gold — is shaping up to become a regional processing hub for mineral deposits in the Pine Creek region.
A prefeasibility study (PFS) on the Fountain Head gold and Hayes Creek gold-silver-zinc projects released in June highlighted a robust, multi-commodity, two-stage mine development that would have an initial mine life of 10 years, a pre-tax net present value (NPV) of $171m and a pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) of 63%.
Both NPV and IRR are metrics used to assess the profitability of a project – the higher the number is above 0, the more profitable it will be.
According to PNX’s timeline, this aspiring gold producer is aiming for construction of the Fountain Head project to begin in the second quarter of next year, followed by first production in early 2023.
PNX has checked off several milestones since it acquired Fountain Head in early 2018, including the definition and update of JORC-compliant resources, identifying opportunities to bring forward projected cashflow, submission for government approvals, and completion of a pre-feasibility study.
This article was developed in collaboration with PNX Metals, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
