Ora Banda scores tenfold resource jump at WA gold prospect

Ora Banda Mining has unveiled a colossal tenfold resource boost to its emerging Round Dam gold trend in Western Australia, catapulting the prospect’s previous inventory by an additional 964 per cent to a new total of 1.33 million ounces.

The monster mic-drop moment caught the eyes of the market with the already $2.2 billion company piling on an extra $480 million in value today, as its shares surged 21 per cent by the close of trading.

The upgraded resource for Round Dam now stands at 25.6 million tonnes grading 1.6 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 7.2 million tonnes at 1.8g/t for 408,000 ounces in the higher confidence indicated category.

The result also provides a significant uplift to Ora Banda’s Davyhurst global resource base, swelling it by 57 per cent to a whopping 3.3 million ounces.

Even better, the vast majority of its Round Dam resource is considered suitable for low-cost open-cut mining. The resource estimate is based on pit shells that are cash-flow positive at a gold price of $5000 per ounce – well below the current $7250 an ounce spot price.

According to the company, the deposit remains open along strike and at depth, with drilling already underway to further expand mineralisation and upgrade resource confidence.

Ora Banda says the massive achievement is just the first phase of an ongoing organic growth program that has so far seen the company aggressively drill test only a 7.5km section of an 18km-long mineralised corridor. 

Management believes exploration along the broader trend is still in its early days. Historically, the northern half of the system has seen little attention because up to 50 metres of surface cover made drilling expensive when gold prices were far lower. Now that the area is beginning to yield impressive high-grade hits, Ora Banda sees the underexplored northern end of the corridor as a prime hunting ground for further discoveries.

With a massive $73 million exploration budget set for the 2026 financial year, equating to a massive 330km of drilling, Ora Banda is showing every intention of unlocking the full potential of the system. And adding more than a million ounces of open-pitable gold in one go is a way to excite the imagination.

Ora Banda Mining managing director Luke Creagh said: “This fantastic result is testimony to the expertise and hard work of our exploration and resource development teams, who continue to deliver outstanding results with our $73 million FY26 exploration budget. There is no doubt of the scale of the Round Dam system, noting there is significant potential to find more mineralisation along strike and at depth."

The scale of the new resource will now factor into already advanced studies for a standalone 3-million-tonne-per-annum (mtpa) processing facility at the Davyhurst project. 

The Round Dam trend runs from Waihi in the north to Salmon Gums in the south, just 18km from the existing Davyhurst mill, providing some serious tonnes at a low cost to the proposed 3mtpa scenario.

On the production front, the company says it remains on track to hit production guidance of 150,000 ounces from its high-grade underground mines at Sand King and Riverina.

With a major new resource under its belt, a huge exploration budget to deploy and a vast, underexplored tenement package to test, Ora Banda appears to be building the critical mass needed to become a substantial gold producer in one of Australia’s premier mining jurisdictions.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au