ASX-listed Wiluna Mining Corporation’s massive development program at its namesake WA gold operation looks set to continue bringing home the bacon with drilling over the Happy Jack and East Lode areas delivering a symphony of high-grade gold intersections. Notable results included 3.72 metres grading 5.31 grams per tonne gold at the former and 7.75m going 13.27 g/t gold at the latter.
Previous drilling across the two zones coughed up a Christmas sack of high-grade strikes including a 1.72m hit going 26.84 g/t that included an intercept of 0.83m at the impressive grade of 53.4 g/t gold and 6.65m at 7.59 g/t gold.
Wiluna says drilling over the past year and a half has consistently delivered thick, high-grade hits at shallow depths and the proximity of these strikes to previously mined areas promote low-cost development opportunities. The results of this latest drilling round seem to be following a similar path.
The recent holes plunged across the Happy Jack and East Lode areas were aimed at infilling areas of inferred resource to upgrade the geological confidence to an indicated resource and grow the ore reserve.
Other results from the recent campaign at Happy Jack included 3.6m going 7.22 g/t gold and 3.53m grading 13.37 g/t. Results from East Lode delivered similarly impressive hits including 11.6m going 5.9 g/t.
The fresh spate of drill results came from around 12,000m of drilling that forms a slice of the Wiluna’s ongoing resource-reserve drilling campaign spread across the 10-million-ounce Wiluna Mining Complex, about 500 kilometres from Kalgoorlie in the gold rich Yilgarn Craton.
Wiluna has earmarked the Happy Jack and East Lode initial mining areas as a key part of the company’s ambitious stage one development plan that will see gold production at Wiluna double its existing output of 60,000 ounces per annum by the third quarter of next year.
The subsequent phase of the development plan will see Wiluna target 1.5 million tonnes-per-annum production for 250,000 ounces of annual gold output. The figures appear to be no small feat for the $160 million market capped company with Northern Star’s nearby Jundee mine – valued at over $10 billion - spitting about 300,000 ounces of gold each year.
The current high-grade resource at the Wiluna Mining Centre includes the Wiluna mine, Happy Jack and the East Lode mining areas amongst a host of others sits at 26.9 million tonnes at 4.9 g/t for 4.23 million ounces of the precious yellow metal with a cut-off above 2.5 g/t cut off.
The company says it remains on track to release its mineral resource estimate in November, with a feasibility study and ore reserves anticipated by about March next year.
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