Ora Banda Mining continues to deliver impressive results at its Riverina underground mine near Kalgoorlie with diamond drilling returning high-grade hits including 1.6m at a whopping 105.4 grams per tonne gold. The company is making steady progress with the underground operation with development rates advancing by 88 per cent since the December quarter with 1711m completed.
Its share price has also been riding a wave since August last year from about 8c to 30c as the company looks implement its detailed mine plan.
Management expects to mine a lode grade of 10 grams per tonne gold at Riverina as part of its “Drive to 100” campaign which outlines plans to produce 100,000 ounces of gold annually by 2025.
The impressive 1.6m section was contained within a 2.8m intercept grading 58.5g/t gold from 98m. Additional high-grade results from the underground diamond drilling campaign recorded 4m going 83.8g/t gold from 14.87m, 2.9m at 103.5g/t from 30.1m and 1.8m grading 26g/t from 98.7m including 1.3m at 35g/t gold.
Wider hits delivered 9m going 8.4g/t gold from 70m including 2.3m at an ounce to the tonne gold, in addition to 8.9m grading 10g/t gold from 132m.
The company has already enjoyed significant success at its operating Riverina underground gold mine, with first ore from its Main Lode deposit developed four weeks ahead of schedule and a total of 13,450 tonnes mined during the December quarter at 2.8g/t for 1221 contained ounces.
Meanwhile, Ora Banda’s Sand King deposit continues to firm as its preferred option to host a second underground gold mine. The company says delivering a second underground mine to support its Riverina operation has the potential to lift the ore grade for its 1.2 million tonnes per annum Davyhurst processing plant and substantially increase its production rate.
Phase two expansion drilling at Sand King has also returned solid gold hits with 10m at 8.2g/t gold from 14m and 4m going 17.4g/t gold from 68m.
Work has already kicked off on a mineral resource update that will underpin the Sand King mining study.
Ora Banda Mining managing director Luke Creagh said: “The Riverina Underground mine will soon fulfil the role of the primary producing asset at Davyhurst, taking over from the Siberia open pits. The mine is now well advanced with stoping coming online and impressive grades coming back from the infill drilling and face sampling. We are pleased with the rate of progress and look forward to ramping this up to commercial production expected in the June quarter and seeing the full potential benefit of the stoping tonnes and grade reaching the processing plant.”
The Sand King deposit is on the company’s Siberia project trend about 800m north of the Missouri open pit and about 37km south of its Davyhurst processing plant.
The Siberia operations host the Missouri, Sand King, Palmerston, Bewick Moering, Theil Well and Black Rabbit deposits that have a gold endowment of 750,000 ounces. The deposits include defined mineral resources of 4.15 million tonnes grading 3.4g/t gold for 458,000 ounces.
Sand King was previously mined by Western Mining Corporation from the late 1980s to 1991 by open pit methods, producing about 50,000 ounces at 4.8g/t gold. A small cutback to the south was introduced by Ora Banda in August last year and was completed early this year to deliver 11,400 ounces at 1.7g/t gold.
With the price of gold currently sitting at around the $3500 per ounce mark, the market will be keeping a close eye on what Ora Banda can deliver with its upcoming resource estimate at Sand King as development continues at pace at Riverina.
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By Michael Philipps
