Determined not to repeat the sins of past owners of the Wiluna Gold plant in W.A, Blackham Resources are pulling out all stops to increase their free milling base load ore before they remove the mothballs from the plant around the middle of the year.
The Matilda mine is one of a dozen prospects that make up the entire Matilda Gold project in Wiluna and Blackham expects to draw first ore from that prospect when the plant recommences next quarter after a few years on care and maintenance.
The company recently announced they have added another 19 000 ounces of gold to the Matilda Mine prospect by updating their resource to 12.9 million tonnes of ore grading 1.8 grams per tonne gold for a total of 724 000 ounces. Over 60% of the resource now sits in the measured and indicated category.
The upgraded resourse at the Matilda Mine prospect brings the total increase in resources at the entire Matilda project to 59000 ounces of gold worth a whopping $93m just in the last month alone.
Blackham’s Managing Director Bryan Dixon said ”The increase in the Measured and Indicated resources at the Matilda Mine gives us further confidence that the Matilda Mine will keep growing. We continue to find repeat and stacked lodes along the deeply weathered Matilda system. The Matilda Mine is shaping up as an important source of base load free milling ore to re-commission the Wiluna Gold Plant.”
Importantly, Blackham have added a massive 649 000 ounces of gold to the Matilda Mine resource since taking over the project.
This is significant because the company expects that the Matilda Mine will provide the base load first ore for the plant which has struggled under previous owners due to a lack of base load free milling ore.
The Matilda Mine prospect is made up of the M1, M2, M3, M4 and M5 pits
The latest drill programmes successfully extended the M4 optimised pit further north and south. The Iceberg 2 zone has extended the pit further north and it is now starting to interplay with the parallel M2 pit according to the company.
Blackham says the Scorchers and Sixers zones are likely to extend the M4 pit designs further south which is now starting to interplay with the neighbouring M3 and M1 pits. As a result of this drilling, the M3 pit is expected to go deeper, merging into both the M4 and M1 pits thereby reducing the combined stripping ratio in this area and improving the economics of the Matilda orebodies. As the Matilda pits continue to merge, the company expects to see significant stripping ratio benefits across the mine.
Blackham Resources are expected to release their long awaited DFS into the entire Matilda Gold project very soon. The current estimated resource is 45 million tonnes grading 3.3 grams per tonne for 4651 ounces of gold.
The company is continuously adding more ounces with a sustained drilling program in readiness for production.
By Matt Birney
