ASX-listed gold producer Ora Banda Mining has picked up a smattering of gold sniffs from a regional reconnaissance aircore drilling program probing priority grassroots targets near its flagship multi-deposit Davyhurst gold mine 120km north-west of Kalgoorlie. The Perth-based company put down about 150 holes for an aggregate coverage of more than 16,000m across the pack of gold prospects that have not seen any drilling previously.
Assays have been received for four of them so far – Sunraysia North, Gem Star North, Santalum and Queen of Hearts.
Some of the more encouraging intercepts from the quartet were 10m grading an average 2.22 grams per tonne gold from 52m depth at Sunraysia North, 16m at 1.2 g/t from 12m at Santalum and 4m at 1.82 g/t from 36m at Gem Star North.
At Sunraysia North, drilling was aimed at testing for a southern continuation of the Riverina and British Lion mineralised trend in an area with no prior drilling.
Ora Banda says significant end of hole mineralisation was intersected along the Riverina trend in three consecutive drill lines spaced 400m apart, delineating a mineralised trend for an 800m strike length.
According to the company, past drill holes to the north and south of the latest drill hits at Sunraysia North were too shallow and fell short of passing through the surface alluvial cover and or depleted zone.
It suggests Sunraysia North’s gold mineralisation remains open along strike north of the British Lion deposit and south towards the Sunraysia deposit.
The Santalum drilling program was designed to test an undrilled auger surface geochemical anomaly on the southern end of the interpreted Round Dam mineralised trend.
Ora Banda Mining Managing Director Peter Nicholson said: “These first-pass drilling results are outstanding in that they have intersected significant gold mineralisation in previously untested areas. We may have drilled a discovery hole at Sunraysia North and at Santalum. There is now 1,200m of prospective strike to explore at Sunraysia North with something similar at Santalum. We look forward to seeing what the follow-up drilling campaign, scheduled to commence later in the year, may deliver.”
Whilst the company still has some work to do to get the mill to its 80,000-ounce a year nameplate capacity, Ora Banda recently announced gold production reached 10,356 ounces at Davyhurst for the June quarter from 201,817 tonnes of ore processed at an average head grade of 1.81 g/t.
Davyhurst’s ore currently comes from the Riverina open-cut and Golden Eagle underground mines and the new Missouri open pit.
Riverina lies about 45km north of Ora Banda’s recommissioned 1.2 million-tonne-per-annum-capacity Davyhurst plant and Golden Eagle is within cooee about 3.2km to the south. Missouri lies about 40km to the south-east.
Ora Banda also said it has increased the global proved and probable reserve inventory for Davyhurst to 6.2 million tonnes at 2.4 g/t for 470,000 ounces of contained gold, representing a jump of 10,000 ounces compared with the previous reserve statement.
The proved and probable ore reserves encompass the project’s six keystone deposits of Riverina, Golden Eagle, Missouri, Waihi, Sand King and Callion.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
