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DIGGERS & DEALERS

Apollo’s next mission:

1 moz and beyond

by Dominic Piper

pollo Consolidated Ltd will continue with resource Castleden said. “By the beginning of next year, we should
Aextensions at its Lake Rebecca project after extensional be ready to look at that resource and what we have done
and infill drilling in May turned up further mineralisation to it. By that time, we might be in a position to start looking
outside current pit shells. down mining studies pathways and all our internal financial
Lake Rebecca – 150km east of Kalgoorlie – reached the studies to date show there is nothing stopping us pushing a
1 moz gold resource milestone in February, just two years long way down a mining pathway.”
after discovery, but there are no signs it has reached its full At 27.1mt @ 1.2 g/t for 1.035 moz gold, Lake Rebecca is at
potential. the lower grade end of the growing cohort of gold exploration
Results released on June 24 contained hits of 3m @ 10.9 g/t projects in Western Australia but Castleden is unfazed by
gold, 13m @ 2.76 g/t, 5m @ 3.2 g/t and 6m @ 2.72 g/t from the numbers. Instead, he chooses to focus on the geometry
positions below the base of the optimised pit shell on the and size of the system.
Rebecca deposit. Those hits followed results from May 29 “It’s one of those systems which has got width and
which included 22m @ 3.44 g/t below the Maddy structure continuity,” he said. “Although the individual lodes can get
at Lake Rebecca. quite complicated, we are following them through 1.7km at
Apollo managing director Nick Castleden told GMJ Rebecca. We have found the grade doesn’t vary much when
extensional drilling would continue through the rest of 2020 you’re in those main structures. Yes, there are some really
as the company looked to extend the resource base before high-grade areas but overall it’s one of those quite coherent
committing to economic studies. and conformable deposits and it gives us geometry which
looks quite doable from a mining perspective.”
“We’ll keep going with the drill rig in exploration and
resource definition because there were too many The WA gold industry was beset by project failures in
unanswered questions regarding the extensions and depth 2018 and 2019 with several lower grade projects failing to
extensions from what we knew in that first resource,” deliver after moving into production. Castleden believes
the consistency of Lake Rebecca and
Apollo’s approach mean the company
will not repeat those mistakes.
“The width and volume of lower grade
material means it is looking like a low
strip ratio so although it is not stellar
grades, it is actually above what is
already being mined in bulk tonnage
scenarios. The strip ratios have
potential to be quite low, so it should
work, rather than some of the failures
where the resources have been a bit
flaky.”
Given the recent track record of lower
grade projects, Apollo is working to
ensure the Lake Rebecca resource is
well drilled out.
“There is a lot of scrutiny in the sub-
2 g/t category and we are conscious
that we are right in that sweet spot,”
Apollo has reached 1 moz gold at Lake Rebecca and is confident of finding more Castleden said. “We treated it [the

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