ASX listed gold producer Coolgardie Minerals has started mining the higher grade oxide ore at its Geko pit near Bullabulling in WA under the second stage of its three stage mine plan.
Management said that about 260,000 tonnes of ore at an average grade of 2.23 grams per tonne gold will be mined under stage two for 18,640 ounces of contained gold.
The company will offer any ore with a grade exceeding 2.75g/t gold to Northern Star Resources under the existing ore sale agreement.
Last month, Coolgardie pocketed $1.68m from the sale of 7980 tonnes of ore grading 5.94g/t gold for 1524 ounces of contained gold to Northern Star.
Discussions are also underway with other parties for the sale of ore and toll milling options for the remaining ore in the company’s mined stockpile.
Mining of the third stage at Geko, which houses about 1.3 million tonnes @ 1.7g/t gold, is subject to the successful completion of the second stage and securing a toll milling agreement acceptable to Coolgardie.
Looking ahead, Coolgardie is planning to carry out exploration drilling to further extend the high-grade supergene zone beyond the current pit design.
Drilling completed in November in this zone returned a top result of 5m @ 19.1g/t gold from 37m down-hole.
A recent 3D geological interpretation of the Geko resource outlined possible extensions to the deposit both down-dip and down-plunge of the known mineralisation.
By Matt Birney
