Ora Banda Mining has delivered a major hike in its gold inventory near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, boosting resources and more than doubling reserves as it sets up the next stage of growth at Davyhurst.
The company’s latest update shows total mineral resources have climbed to 54.8 million tonnes at two grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 3.57 million ounces, representing an increase of 1.46 million ounces since 1 July last year.
The jump was led by a near tenfold rise at the company’s Round Dam operation, where the open pit resource has blown out to a tabled 25.35 million tonnes at 1.6g/t for 1.33 million ounces.
The company’s Waihi operation also put on a strong showing, with its combined open pit and underground resource more than doubling to 7.27 million tonnes at 2.1g/t for 482,000 ounces.
Just as importantly for future mine planning, Ora Banda’s ore reserve has surged an astounding 136 per cent to 7.84 million tonnes at 2.2g/t gold for 555,000 ounces, stoutly anchored by the maiden reserves at Waihi underground and Round Dam.
The new Waihi underground reserve totals 825,000 tonnes at 3.8g/t for 101,000 ounces, including 254,000 tonnes at 5.0g/t gold for 41,000 ounces from the Golden Pole lode.
Round Dam has also delivered a maiden open-pit reserve of 3.67 million tonnes at 1.9g/t for 223,000 ounces across five pits along a 3.6-kilometre strike, with both systems still open to further growth.
Additional upside may still reside in the wings, with recent Round Dam drilling still awaiting assays and therefore not yet included in the current estimates.
Ora Banda expects those results to feed into its annual resource and reserve update for Round Dam, Riverina and Sand King in the June quarter, ahead of a maiden resource estimate for Little Gem in the first half of FY27.
The company has adopted an aspirational growth outlook it calls “Drive to 300”. The plan is an internally funded organic growth pathway and is best summed up as a three-year ambition to double production and build Australia’s next 300,000-ounce-per-year gold producer.
Ora Banda Mining managing director Luke Creagh said: “The Drive to 300 is the exciting next phase for Ora Banda, building on earlier success with the achievement of Drive to 100 and Drive to 150. This doubling of production is currently expected to be capable of being internally funded and has the potential to add material value and position Ora Banda as a long-term sustainable gold business.”
Backing its recently inflated gold inventory, Ora Banda has approved a new standalone three-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant at Davyhurst for $375M and development of its third underground mine at Waihi under its Drive to 300 growth plan.
The company finished March with $232M in cash and has upsized its revolving credit facility to $200M, giving it pro forma liquidity of $432M to help fund the expansion.
With more ounces now defined and the build-out road map expanding before it, Ora Banda is starting to look like a company with genuine scale options rather than just potential.
If the next batch of drilling keeps landing the same sort of results, today’s inventory expansion may not be the end of the story.
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By Doug Bright
