ASX-listed Kalgoorlie gold miner, Horizon Minerals, has returned a clutch of encouraging near-surface drill hits from one of a key quartet of satellite deposits underpinning its developing Boorara gold project 10km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder. The Perth-based company recently completed a round of reserve-conversion infill drilling at the Rose Hill deposit near Coolgardie, comprising 29 RC holes totalling 899m to a depth of 65m, as part of a mammoth 70,000m drilling campaign this financial year.
Notable intersections from the latest drilling were 3m going 6.63 grams per tonne gold from 10m, 5m at 4.79 g/t from 4m, and 6m at 2.73 g/t from surface.
Other significant assays included 7m at 2.36 g/t from 2m, 7m at 2.34 g/t from 15m, 2m at 3.12 g/t from 24m and 15m at 1.66 g/t from 18m.
According to Horizon, the drill intercepts have improved its geological confidence in the Rose Hill deposit near surface and in turn will help facilitate an upgrade of the open-pittable portion of the resource numbers to measured and indicated status, earmarked for the current quarter.
The company then aims to convert the Rose Hill resource to a maiden ore reserves estimate that will be incorporated into Horizon’s definitive feasibility study, or “DFS” on the overarching Boorara project. The DFS is scheduled for delivery in the June quarter next year.
The latest published indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate for Rose Hill – to 300m depth – stands at 1.2 million tonnes of ore grading 2.49 g/t for 95,200oz of contained gold. Initial scoping studies, the company says, point to the potential for an open-pit mine followed by decline development to exploit the higher-grade underground lodes at depth.
Horizon Minerals Managing Director, Jon Price said: “Rose Hill continues to demonstrate significant open-cut and underground potential and we look forward to completion of the updated resource models and reserve generation studies in coming quarters as drilling continues with four rigs across a number of core project areas.”
“The company’s aim is to generate additional high-grade open-pit and underground reserves supplementing the large-scale baseload Boorara project in Kalgoorlie to underpin a longer-term production pipeline and a standalone processing facility at Boorara.”
Rose Hill is one of four core satellite gold deposits in Horizon’s near-Kalgoorlie portfolio of gold assets – the others being Boorara, the Binduli project’s deposits and Teal – that are driving its Boorara gold mining and processing operation aspirations.
Rose Hill sits 35km west of Kalgoorlie, Binduli 10km west of Kalgoorlie, Teal 12km north-west of Kalgoorlie and Boorara 10km east of Kalgoorlie.
The Kalpini gold project, the acquisition of which the company has just completed, is also set to be added to the DFS mix. It is located 50km north-east of Boorara and falls within the company’s growth strategy parameters of sniffing out advanced possible satellite deposits within trucking distance or 75km of the proposed stand-alone Boorara facility.
Horizon’s main Boorara deposit underpins the initial five-year mine plan and proposed construction of a gold treatment plant at the Boorara mine site. Its latest stated measured, indicated and inferred resource stands at 16.45 million tonnes at 0.96 g/t for 507,000oz of contained gold and currently speaks for about half of the company’s gold resource inventory spread across the ore-some foursome of about one million ounces.
The company mined three trial open pits at Boorara this year. Two of the three batches of ore toll-milled saw approximately 2,900 ounces of gold produced, with 1,845 ounces sold for an average $2,654 an ounce and 1,050 ounces fetching a stellar $2,791 an ounce for total gross revenue of $7.82 million.
Gold market punters will be keenly watching out for pending resource updates, further drilling results from the massive 70,000m program and mine optimisation and design studies on the various deposits as Horizon’s Boorara gold compilation nears DFS-day.
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By Matt Birney
