Pacgold to restart heap leach irrigation at White Dam Project

Pacgold (ASX:PGO) has achieved a significant milestone at its White Dam Gold Project in South Australia, approximately 80km west of Broken Hill, with approval now received to recommence irrigation of the heap leach pad.

The company has relined the Pregnant Leach Solution pond, enabling full-scale lixiviation of existing ore.

Irrigation and dripper lines are being installed this week on recently turned-over run-of-mine material on the northern side of the pad, with full irrigation scheduled to begin in the last week of December.

A 120-tonne excavator has been mobilised to turn over approximately 500,000 tonnes of ore on the northern edge of the pad.

This process aerates and exposes the ore to irrigation fluid, providing a low-cost, first-pass trial to evaluate potential additional gold recovery from previously stacked material.

In parallel, exploration drilling at the Vertigo pit is progressing, with 2,700m of RC drilling already completed.

Initial assay results are expected mid-January, with a total of 7,000m planned to upgrade inferred resources to the indicated category, supporting an updated mineral resource estimate and production restart.

The full program is expected to take approximately three months.