Maritana Minerals has unveiled a massive 148 per cent year-on-year increase in combined gold ore reserves to 204,000 ounces in the latest annual resource update, significantly bolstering its future mine plan. The company’s total combined gold mineral resources also saw a solid 6.3 per cent leap to 1.86 million ounces for the year ended 30 June 2026, a particularly impressive feat given the figure is net of mining depletion from its active operations.
The impressive growth comes at a time when the gold price is running hot and the Western Australian goldfields are a hive of merger and acquisition activity. Recent reports show gold prices above A$6300 an ounce, whilst major corporate deals in the region have underlined the premium being placed on local ounces and established infrastructure.
Maritana says the substantial reserve growth was driven primarily by the delivery of maiden open pit ore reserves at its Crake and Kalpini projects, in addition to an updated reserve at its cornerstone Boorara open pit project. All of those projects lie within 50 kilometres of the company's developing Black Swan gold processing hub, 40km northeast of Kalgoorlie.
The company’s Boorara and Burbanks projects remain the foundation of its resource base. The Boorara open pit in-situ resource now stands at 9.28 million tonnes grading 1.26 grams per tonne for 375,000 ounces of gold, after being depleted by 53,000 ounces from mining during the year. The current Boorara ore reserve sits at 72,000 ounces.
Maritana has also demonstrated some savvy geological interpretation, re-reporting several of its resources at a lower cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t gold, which has had a dramatic effect on the numbers. The move saw the Coote project’s resource tonnage swell five-fold, delivering a 300 per cent lift in contained ounces, while Golden Ridge North's and Gordons Dam's gold endowment lifted by 41 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively.
Maritana Minerals managing director and chief executive officer Grant Haywood said: “This year’s statement reflects real growth in both the quality and the confidence of our inventory. Boorara and Burbanks remain the cornerstone assets of the portfolio and the growth in Reserves at Boorara in particular demonstrates the value of continued drilling and mine planning work on our tenure to feed our 100% owned Black Swan Processing Hub (BSPH) infrastructure."
In addition to its burgeoning gold inventory, the company holds a diverse portfolio of other metals including 20.2 million ounces of silver and 104,000 tonnes of zinc at its Nimbus project. Following the divestment of its Lake Johnston assets, Maritana’s nickel resources now total 293,100 tonnes, along with 5800 tonnes of cobalt.
The company is showing no signs of slowing down, with drill bits currently spinning on a massive 60,000-metre drilling program across multiple projects including Burbanks, Coote, Crake and Gordon’s Dam.
Management says it expects to table a resource update for the high-grade Burbanks gold project and a reserve update for Rose Hill in the near future, pointing to a steady stream of news flow.
With a massive annual hike in ore reserves, a resource base knocking on the door of two million ounces and a huge drilling campaign underway, Maritana appears to be assembling the critical mass of ounces needed to feed a long-life production hub in the heart of WA’s storied gold country. As the drill results from its latest campaign start to roll in, things could get very interesting for the Perth-based explorer.
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By Doug Bright
