Northern Star Resources has unveiled a 50 per cent increase in resources at its Ashburton gold operation near Tom Price, boosting its strategy to establish a second 100,000 ounce-a-year gold mine in Western Australia.
Northern Star announced today a new resource estimate at Ashburton of 1.007 million ounces.
The miner plans to truck ore from Ashburton to its neighbouring Paulsens processing plant.
At close of trade today, Northern Star shares were up 4 per cent, trading at 90 cents.
Managing director Bill Beament said the additional resources vindicated the company’s decision to ramp up exploration at Ashburton.
“The fact that our drilling program has already resulted in such a significant resource increase highlights the enormous upside at Ashburton,” Mr Beament said.
“There is huge potential to grow resources at the half-a-dozen deposits we currently know of and then there are numerous other walk-up drill targets which we are confident will add significantly to the inventory.”
Mr Beament said the discovery put Northern Star firmly on track to become a 200,000oz per annum producer with long mine life, strong cash flow and no bank debt.
