Vango Mining embarks on next drilling chapter at 1.02-million-ounce Marymia Gold Project

Vango Mining Ltd (ASX:VAN) has kicked off the 2021 resource expansion drilling campaign at its flagship Marymia Gold Project in Western Australia. The gold explorer’s latest program will cover at least 15,000 metres and target 11 priority open pits that lie outside Marymia’s 1.02-million-ounce JORC-compliant gold resource, which grades 3 g/t gold. Ultimately, it’s hoped the 2021 campaign will uncover significant near-surface resources that are responsive to open-pit mining as part of the WA gold play’s future operations. Vango has promised to update the market on results as they become available, while the company has set its sights on delivering an increase to Marymia’s indicated and inferred resources this year. A new campaign As it sets out to conduct the next round of drilling at its wholly-owned gold project, Vango has ranked Marymia’s 11 open-pit drill targets, with the Skyhawk, Parrot and Apollo open pits determined the highest priority targets. Work has already kicked off at the Skyhawk open pit, with drilling also planned at the Apollo, Exocet, Ibis, Kookaburra, Parrot, Pigeon, Prickleys, Redfin, Rosella and Speckled prospects. The drilling order has been determined based on historical gold inventory and a review of previous drilling data, meaning the ASX lister has been able to design a suite of drill holes over each of the open-pit targets. Vango intends to conduct drilling on a nominal 20-metre by 40-metre drill spacing, a strategy it hopes will appropriately cover Marymia’s mineralised zones. Ultimately, the company has set out to determine the tenor of mineralisation at depth and will use the drilling to facilitate the calculation of the gold asset’s indicated and inferred mineral resources. The campaign is also designed to deliver ‘critical mass’ to increase the mine life of a proposed future mining operation from Marymia’s resource base. Specifically, this will target an increase in total gold ounces to ensure the mill capacity of any future mine operation is maximised over the project’s total mine life. Reverse circulation drilling is planned to penetrate 120 metres deep, angled to around 60 degrees to test 120 metres below the surface. Depending on the assays from the 2021 campaign, Vango has the option expand the campaign and has vowed to drill at least 15,000 metres across the gold play. In footsteps of 2020 program The 2021 campaign comes after Vango completed an extensive 20,000-metre reverse circulation campaign over the Marymia Gold Project last year. This previous program centred on the Trident and PHB gold corridors, with extensive geological review and modelling activities carried out following the drilling campaign. Ultimately, Vango sees the latest campaign as a chance to substantially upgrade and expand Marymia’s gold resource. The gold explorer will utilise results from both of the drilling campaigns to update the project’s JORC 2012 mineral resource in 2021’s second half. Marymia is currently estimated to host 10.38 million tonnes of resource at 3 g/t gold for more than one million contained gold ounces, as announced in May 2020.