Normandy hits high grade Down Under

Exploration at the Vera Nancy gold deposit continues to intersect high-grade values as the Australian project nears commercial production.

Situated in Queensland, the project is a joint venture of Normandy Mining and Battle Mountain Gold (BMG-N).

Drilling of the main oreshoot at Nancy North encountered 10 metres of vein material grading 20.2 grams gold per tonne and 7.4 metres grading 20.7 grams.

At the Vera South zone, drilling intercepted high values, including 9 metres of 91.3 grams gold and 4.4 metres of 81.3 grams. These intersections were found 400 metres outside the current resource limit.

These new results could increase the size of the deposit, which stands at 1.4 million oz. (No grade and tonnage estimates for the resource are available.) The project is still in the preproduction stage, with most of the mined material resulting from underground development.

At the small Vera pit, material has been mined and stockpiled.

In August, mining of higher-grade ore from underground will commence. Vera Nancy produced 8,073 oz. gold at a cash cost of US$329 per oz. during the second quarter.