Ora Banda Mining has capped off a transformational year at its Davyhurst gold project by delivering yet another quarter of record gold production as it accelerates an ambitious DRIVE to 300,000 ounces per year expansion.
The WA-based gold producer churned out a record 39,552 ounces for the June quarter, meeting its full-year guidance of 141,000 ounces produced for the 2026 financial year.
The impressive production figures generated strong cash flow of $36 million for the quarter, swelling the company’s cash at bank to a healthy 268 million.
The company now has total available liquidity of $468 million, including an undrawn $200 million revolving facility.
While the all-in sustaining cost (AISC) for the quarter came in at a punchy A$3870 an ounce, the company puts it down to costs associated with third-party processing, higher diesel prices and wet weather interruptions late in the period. The full-year AISC was $3496 per ounce.
The higher costs, however, only serve to highlight the importance of the company’s flagship ‘DRIVE to 300’ strategy, which is designed to significantly increase production and drive down unit costs. The aspirational plan aims to double production by the 2029 financial year through the construction of a new standalone three-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant at its Davyhurst operations.
Construction on the new mill has already begun, with commissioning slated for the second half of the 2028 financial year.
Ora Banda Mining managing director Luke Creagh said: "Our organic growth strategy continues to gain momentum, with material increases in Resources and operating cashflows continuing to strengthen the balance sheet. The business has more than $468 million of liquidity to fund capital projects as we target a doubling of production and a step-change down in unit costs by FY29.”
Backing up the major growth initiative is a serious expansion of the company’s geological inventory. The producer recently delivered a 75 per cent jump in its group mineral resources to 3.69 million ounces and a staggering 159 per cent leap in its ore reserves to 610,000 ounces.
Five principal mining sources have now emerged across the project: Waihi underground, Waihi open pit, Round Dam open pit, Sand King underground and Riverina underground, which includes the promising Little Gem discovery.
The headline act in the resource update was Round Dam, where the open pit resource rocketed more than tenfold from 125,000 ounces to a hefty 1.33 million ounces.
With higher-grade 5g/t gold emerging from Waihi’s soon-to-be-mined Golden Pole zone, Ora Banda’s growing inventory of close-to-mill ounces is also beginning to swell.
The resource upgrades have come hot on the heels of the company awarding a $233 million contract for a brand new 3-million-tonne-per-year processing plant at Davyhurst.
With cash flowing, a war chest to fund its growth ambitions and an expanding resource with no cap in sight, Ora Banda's DRIVE to 300 has shifted from strategy to execution. As the pieces rapidly fall into place, the conversation is no longer about whether it can become WA's next gold major, but when.
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By Andrew Todd
