Calidus strengthens development credentials

ASX-listed gold developer Calidus Resources continues to strengthen and de-risk the underlying fundamentals of its Warrawoona gold project in WA’s East Pilbara region with a new 35m drill hit going 2.84g/t gold from surface.

The current round of resource drilling, which is designed to test the robustness of the company’s recently completed pre-feasibility study or “PFS”, shows broad continuous zones of gold mineralisation outcropping from surface. 

Another solid recent hit at the company’s flagship Klondyke deposit was a 23m intersection grading at 2.55g/t from just 15m downhole.

The latest drilling results will certainly boost management’s confidence in the project as it continues to advance activities ahead of its highly anticipated definitive feasibility study.

Calidus’ PFS showed that Warrawoona would produce 100,000 ounces of gold per annum over an initial six-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of AUD$1,159 per ounce. Those numbers equate to a healthy pre-tax cash flow of AUD$61m a year for Calidus.

The company also recently defined a maiden ore reserve of 8.9 million tonnes grading 1.5g/t gold for just under 420,000 ounces of gold at the proposed Klondyke open pit and underground mining operation.

The rapidly advancing project now hosts a total mineral resource of 1,248,000 ounces at 1.83g/t gold that is defined over a remarkable 5km of strike. Management notes that the mineralisation is still open in all directions with the current drilling program expected to highlight the growth potential of Calidus’ resource base.

Calidus Managing Director Dave Reeves said: the results “further boost the economic outlook for the planned open pit while derisking the operation in the process. In simple terms, it means we would be mining ore from day one with no pre-strip required.

Drilling continues at Klondyke with two rigs; while an RC rig is currently drilling greenfields targets 3km west of Klondyke the diamond rig continues to infill the underground resource. All of this drilling is aimed at extending mine life, which would in turn enhance the previously quoted PFS metrics”.

The drill rods will be turning for a while yet at this project that still look slike it has plenty of newsflow left in it.

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