Shares in Apex Minerals have surged after the gold miner upgraded its resource estimate at its Wiluna mine in Western Australia.
Shares in Apex Minerals have surged after the gold miner upgraded its resource estimate at its Wiluna mine in Western Australia.
In a statement today, the miner said the total resource at the gold mine had risen by 83,000 ounces of gold, or 8 per cent, to 1.6 million ounces.
Shares in Apex rose 0.5 cents, or 11.4 per cent, to 4.9c at 13:00 AEDST.
Part of the announcement is below:
Highlights
- Total Mineral Resources at Wiluna increased by 83,000 ounces to 1.6 million ounces of gold
- Indicated Mineral Resources steady at 763,000 ounces
- Increase is despite 90,000 ounces being mined since previous resource estimate
Apex Minerals NL (ASX: AXM) is pleased to announce that following its annual resource re-estimation, the Wiluna Mineral Resource has increased by 83,000 ounces of gold as at 30th June 2009. The revised Mineral Resource totals 8.03 million tonnes at 6.6g/t for 1.6 million ounces of gold. This represents an 8% increase in grade and a 5% increase in contained gold compared with the previous Mineral Resource estimate undertaken in October 2008, using the same estimation criteria.
Importantly, the Indicated Resource has effectively remained unchanged at 763,000 ounces, and the average grade has increased by 6% to 6.9g/t gold. This is despite mining depletion of 90,000 ounces (600,000 tonnes at 4.7g/t) since October 2008, being 198,000 tonnes at 5.7g/t for 36,000 ounces gold mined from Calais and 402,000 tonnes at 4.1g/t for 54,000 ounces gold mined from East Pit.
Apex Managing Director Mark Ashley said the result was extremely pleasing given the limited amount of exploration and resource drilling undertaken in the past year.
"These results highlight the potential to increase the resources at Wiluna," Mr Ashley said. "The additional funds from the rights issue will enable Apex to undertake substantial mine development which will in turn underpin a steady rise in production and an increase in cashflow. This improved financial position will give the Company significant scope to undertake the drilling needed to grow the resource base and upgrade the existing resources".
