Tyranna Resources could soon begin scoping studies at its Jumbuck Gold Project near the Challenger mine in South Australia after announcing a 46% increase in JORC resources to 319,000 ounces of gold.
Total indicated and inferred resources increased to 8.7 million tonnes @ 1.1 g/t gold, with the bulk of resources sitting within the Golf Bore and Campfire Bore deposits.
Both deposits are located about 50km northeast of the WPG Resources’ Challenger underground gold mine, which is targeting production of about 60,000 ounces in FY18.
WPG is also a partner in the Jumbuck project through the Western Gawler Craton Joint Venture. This throws the door wide open for the possibility of toll processing of the Jumbuck resources next door at Challenger, overcoming the need for a capex spend at the project.
The economics of Jumbuck are further strengthened by the fact that all of the gold bearing ore sits at depths of less than 100m.
Tyranna Managing Director, Bruno Seneque, said the company would now start to plan first-pass scoping studies to evaluate the potential of advancement towards a feasibility study.
He said, “This 100,000 ounce increase is a very pleasing result for the Western Gawler Craton Joint Venture. It illustrates a significant step forward in building resources at Jumbuck. This new resource strengthens our understanding of the deposits and it is to be noted that these are shallow ounces, sitting only 100m from the surface.”
The latest mineral resource estimate at Jumbuck follows just under 10,000m of RC drilling and five diamond core holes during 2017 and early 2018. Drilling at the Typhoon and Monsoon targets enabled a maiden resource estimate for these deposits, whilst drilling at Gold Bore and Greenewood increased confidence in the continuity of mineralisation.
The company said the Jumbuck project is still under-explored and at an early stage, with no other developed mines or historic production within the project area of more than 7,000 square kms around the Challenger mine.
The ultimate aim of the project is to discover lookalikes of the Challenger deposit, which hosts relatively high-grade gold and has an unusual style of mineralisation in metamorphic rocks.
While the deposits discovered so far at Jumbuck are lowish grade, all of them are open at depth. The company is looking to uncover the kind of plunging, high-grade ore shoots seen at Challenger going forward.
By Matt Birney
