Highlights

• Vertex Minerals’ shares jumped nearly 10% after the company announced gold assay results for hole VRHD003 at the Red Hill Project.

• VTX has received significant drill intercepts, and the mineralisation demonstrates significant widths from the surface.
• VTX gas drilled shallow mineralisation with wide intersections and now includes the previous significant drill intercepts from the initial 3 holes.

Australian gold explorer Vertex Minerals Limited (ASX:VTX) has received assay results for the 4^th hole, VRHD003, of the current 11 drill holes at the Red Hill Project.

Triggered by the announcement, VTX shares jumped ~10% to trade at AU$0.120 midday on 14 November 2022.

VTX continues to receive impressive results from drilling across the project, aimed at expanding the mineral resource within 75m of the surface. The company expects the drilling campaign to provide the basis of a low-risk production plan to recommence processing operations at Hill End.

Significant drill intercepts

VTX is targeting the stockwork and halo zones through the planned 1,500m diamond core drill program. These zones are believed to have the highest potential to deliver significant tonnage to the resource while enhancing amenability to bulk mining methods.

Following are the significant drill intercepts for hole VRHD003

• 2m at 3.84 g/t from 42m down hole
• 15m at 1.4 g/t from 67m down hole, including
  • 1m at 8.25 g/t from 70m and
  • 1m at 2.68 g/t from 77m and
  • 1m at 1.30 g/t from 67m.

Section A showing VRHD003 (Source: VTX)

Moreover, substantial widths from surface have been highlighted by the mineralisation, which VTX believes is amenable to open-pit mining techniques.

The current drilling program is the initial phase of a multi-stage drilling program.

Red Hill Mineral Resource

The Red Hill project Mineral Resource forms around 1km of the 14km strike length at the Hill End Gold Project and has witnessed extensive historical mining. Since most of the earlier workings were impeded by a high-water table, the previous workings are believed to be relatively shallow in comparison to other areas of the Hill End Project.  

In 2015, Hill End Gold Limited declared a JORC 2012 resource estimate of 80,000 oz Au at 1.7 g/t to 150m depth for Red Hill.

Hill End Project Mineral Resource Estimate (Source: VTX)

Metallurgy at Red Hill

VTX believes that the metallurgy at Red Hill is amendable to gravity recovery methods, as a liberation of more than 90% of the contained gold at a coarse grind size was reported through test work.

The project also includes an existing fully owned and permitted processing plant. The company believes that the access to the plant and high metallurgical recovery suggests the opportunity to advance a low-cost gold mine with a minimal environmental footprint.

VTX remains committed to advancing the commercial production of gold from its NSW projects using environmentally sustainable methods.