Pambili commences underground drilling at the Golden Valley Mine; program targeting near-term source of ore
Figure 1: Plan of Underground Drilling Holes relative to historic workings at GVM.
CALGARY, Canada (Sept. 10, 2024)—Pambili Natural Resources Corporation ("Pambili" or the "Corporation") (TSX-V: PNN) is pleased to announce that underground drilling has begun at its Golden Valley Mine (“GVM”) in Zimbabwe.
Shengela (Private) Limited (“Shengela”) has been engaged to complete the underground drilling program (Program”) at GVM. An initial 600m of diamond drilling will be completed with the objective of identifying the extension of the orebody previously mined at GVM along with possible parallel zones to the north of the existing orebody. Shengela will use a Meter Eater drilling rig to produce AXT (30 mm) core from up to six holes, with a maximum depth of 100m per hole (see Figure 1 above.).
The Company’s initial objective is to test the down dip continuity of the ore body at GVM. Holes EADD001 to EADD003 will be drilled in a fan at a -45° angle. Pambili expects that at least one of these holes is likely to intersect the orebody in the footwall at approximately 25m downhole.
Pambili’s secondary target is a NW-trending shear that was interpreted from airborne geophysics. The shear appears to be located 25 to 30m north of the underground workings. An initial “scout” hole (EADD004) will be drilled at a +5° angle and, depending on the results obtained from the core, two further holes (EADD005 and EADD006) are planned on either side of the scout hole.
The following schematic shows the location and direction of the planned holes relative to the historic workings at GVM:
Figure 2: A 3D representation of the planned DD holes at GVM relative to the orebody (red), the shear (transparent grey), and the existing mine workings.
Pambili’s drilling program is designed to identify a production resource rather than a code-compliant mineral resource estimate, so sampling and testing will only be conducted on any mineralized zones intersected by each hole. Assays of such intersections will be submitted to an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited commercial metallurgical assay laboratory in Zimbabwe on a hole-by-hole basis to minimize the time taken to get the full assay results.
Pambili expects the assay results from each hole to help guide the direction of subsequent drilling. For example, if the Company’s first hole shows promising mineralization, the direction of the third hole may be adjusted from the initial plan to determine the extent of that mineralization.
Jon Harris, Chief Executive Officer of Pambili Natural Resources, commented:
“The gold grades encountered from our sludge drilling holes around the periphery of GVM’s historic development support our belief that, in the absence of geological data, historical mining simply stopped once the mineralized zone was mined out.
Regional geology suggests the Bulawayo greenstone belts exhibit “pinch and swell” structures and Pambili’s drilling program is geared towards identifying the next “swell.” This could have the potential to provide a near-term source of ore to fund operations at Golden Valley.
This will provide the Company with a strong foundation while we look to complete a surface drilling program at GVM to identify a code-compliant mineral resource.
We’re looking to forward to continuing to advance our understanding of GVM’s gold potential as the drill bit begins turning, and will provide results as and when we are able.”