Bonanza-grade gold hits boost Ora Banda WA underground mine plan

Ora Banda Mining has jagged bonanza-grade gold hits outside its Sand King life-of-mine (LOM) plan and increased its mining inventory at the expanding underground mine northwest of Kalgoorlie. 

The total drill program comprised surface and underground drilling at Sand King, with assays received from six of nine holes drilled. The assays identified high-grade gold outside and below the existing LOM plan.

Step out drilling about 300 metres north of the LOM plan produced several stunning hits. The two best results were 1.7 metres at a bonanza 1371.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from a depth of 73m, including 0.4m at a massive 5545g/t, and a pearler intersection running 5.6m at 346.3g/t gold from 157.7m, including a 3.5m super-slice grading 551.5g/t.

Further standout gold assays from the underground step-out drilling included 3.6m at 78.4g/t, 2.6m going 85.9g/t and a 4.1m stretch returning 51.1g/t, which included 0.9m at 225g/t.

Notably, underground resource definition drilling intersected multiple gold lodes about 50m north of the LOM plan, with results of 24.2m running 4.4g/t, 5.6m at 5g/t and a 1.7m slice grading a solid 27.7g/t.

An impressive wedge-hole from surface and outside the LOM plan returned an 18.7m gold interval at 8.9g/t from 490m, including 8.7m grading 8.7g/t and 8.8m running at 10.4g/t, separated by a 1.2m section of drill-core loss, deemed to have assayed at zero gold. The parent and wedge hole are 70 vertical metres apart, with mineralisation considered open in all directions, offering a potential new exploration zone.

Another surface hole intersected previously unidentified mineralisation from 450m depth, with a longer 14.3m section hitting 5.3g/t gold from 502m.

Grade control drilling within the LOM footprint kicked up an impressive series of high-grade zones not encountered in previous resource definition drilling and provides Ora Banda with scope to deliver upside at the underground project. 

The best underground infill gold results consist of 12.4m at 12.3g/t, 0.6m at a stellar 205.9g/t, 2.6m going 43.6g/t, 0.9m at 97.5g/t and a chunky 3m block at 26.2g/t. A further 11 hits running at more than 50-gram-metres of gold highlight the success of the drill program and the significance of Sand King’s gold grades. 

Ora Banda managing director Luke Creagh said: “We started the Sand King underground mine on a reserve of 55,000 ounces and our initial thinking was that it would be a support play to our main underground operation at Riverina. However, these remarkable hits from step out drilling, coupled with consistent resource infill drilling intercepts, show that Sand King Underground is bigger than we first thought.”

Creagh said the tenor of the mineralisation is potentially higher than initially expected and the deposit looks to be shaping up as a meaningful source of feed for the company’s Davyhurst mill. 

Ora Banda believes the uplift in mining inventory from the drilling justifies an independent southern decline being developed. It says underground drilling has transformed the eastern lodes stopes, thought to be in isolated pockets, into a continuous corridor of economic mineralisation. The improvement in the continuity of gold lodes will enable the southern decline extension to be brought forward.

The bonanza-grade gold results from Sand King come hot on the heels of high-grade gold discovered at the company’s Waihi and Round Dam Trend prospects, pointing to the potential for Ora Banda’s Davyhurst mill to be filled to the gills in the coming years from the myriad of golden projects under management’s savvy guidance.

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