Historic High-Grade Mine with Untested Depth Potential
Kavango’s Bill’s Luck prospect combines known historic high-grade production with underexplored extensions, offering near-term potential for underground mining. Drilling has identified numerous new gold-bearing structures, with grades increasing with depth.
Originally mined between 1916 and 1950, the Bill’s Luck Mine produced around 17,000 ounces (”oz”) of gold at an average grade of 7.7 grams per tonne (“g/t”). Since then, only limited community contract mining activity and small-scale retreatment have taken place.
Kavango began rehabilitating the mine’s Main Shaft and West Shaft to investigate the site’s remaining potential. During this process, the team accessed a previously undocumented third development level (“Level 3”), revealing a quartz-sulphide reef with visible gold mineralisation. Subsequent sampling suggests grades increase with depth when compared to Levels 1 and 2 – as seen below:
Bill’s Luck assays showing samples increasing in grade with depth from Mine Level 2 to 3
A second reef, interpreted beneath existing surface workings to the south, stands to add another 560 metres of potential strike length to the target area.
Kavango subsequently completed 3,800m of combined diamond and RC drilling, with the results surpassing expectations:
- Holes encountered multiple new gold-bearing reefs, including four possible ore shoots over 245m along the Bills Luck “Main Reef”, which remains open along strike.
- Diamond drilling intersected highlight grades of 1.65g/t Au over 0.4m within a potential 4m-wide structure and 1.9g/t Au over 0.8m within a potential 2.5m-wide structure.
- RC drilling intersected highlight grades of 9.26g/t Au over 2m from 22m and 2.69g/t Au over 3m from 44m
Recently completed drilling (red) and current underground drilling (light blue) at Bill’s Luck
Aerial View of Bill’s Luck Custom Milling Facility
Kavango is now designing an infill and step-out surface drilling plan to define the geometry and continuity of the new reefs to examine their mineralisation. The first step will be geotechnical drilling.
Infrastructure upgrades are also underway. Kavango is reinforcing the Main Shaft’s head frame and winder to handle daily hoisting of up to 100 tonnes of ore. A 50-tonne-per-day Carbon-in-Pulp (“CIP”) plant is under consideration for on-site gold recovery.
Read our recent releases on Bill’s Luck.
