Ora Banda Mining has added to its rapidly developing story at the Davyhurst gold project that it rescued from the Administrators of the failed Eastern Goldfields Ltd after it nailed a set of drill results at its Riverina South Project. The development comes just days after the company churned out its first gold bar from the re-invigorated project north of Kalgoorlie.
The headline assay from the infill campaign includes a 3-metre intersection grading 32.4 grams per tonne gold from 34m.
The company is continuing to build a positive mining development picture for the Riverina South Project for which Ora Banda recently unveiled a maiden mineral resource of 650,000 tonnes grading at 2.1 grams per tonne for 43,000 ounces.
Ora Banda Mining Managing Director, David Quinlivan said: “This project is on track to deliver mine extensions with the deeper drilling ongoing. We are keen to see how the upgraded mineral resource at Riverina South can contribute to the ore stream flowing from main Riverina open pit mining operations.”
“The mining is picking up pace, so the time is now in relation incorporating Riverina South into this larger operation.”
Ora Banda’s current Riverina South infill program is testing a highly prospective, 1kilometre-long strike extension corridor immediately south of the main Riverina mining area.
Management says the Riverina South mineralisation is a direct continuation of the gold mineralisation of the main Riverina deposit, where open pit mining commenced in October 2020.
Approximately 7,400m of RC infill drilling remains to be completed in the current Phase 3 program, which has followed closely by a significant Riverina South drilling campaign.
A previous Phase 1 RC program of 32 exploration holes for 3,639m was completed in early 2020, while a Phase 2 RC programme of 68 holes for 7,338m was subsequently undertaken.
The latter programme refined the drill hole spacing down to a 40m x 25m spacing in two discreet areas at Riverina South and resulted in the unveiling of the maiden mineral resource.
A detailed mining study for the Riverina Project area, which was included in the Davyhurst Project DFS, has identified an open-pit mining opportunity within two separate open pits to be mined to around 110m below the current ground level.
The recently commissioned Davyhurst gold processing plant has a rated capacity of 1.2 million tonnes per annum and includes key infrastructure such as a new 8.25MW gas and diesel-fired power station, significantly upgraded and commissioned bore fields, upgraded road infrastructure for ore supply routes and an upgraded 172 room camp.
The Davyhurst DFS forecasted an average production target of 81,000 ounces of gold per annum, with an initial life of mine of 5.2 years albeit the company has plenty of near-mine opportunities to potentially increase that number.
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By Matt Birney
