Ora Banda Mining continues to kick goals as part of its ongoing resource drill out at its Davyhurst project in the goldfields of WA. Having poured the first gold bar at Davyhurst only in February, the Ora Banda is now steaming ahead in its quest to grow the gold resources beneath the Riverina pit and at the Riverina South prospect.
An eye-catching interval of 10.0 metres grading 10.8 grams per tonne from 80m depth at Riverina South leads an assemblage of high-grade results released this week. More solid hits were received from beneath the Riverina pit including 14m at 6.6g/t gold from 148m.
The ongoing campaign already returned some fruitful gold hits in February including 3m at over an ounce to the tonne gold at 32.4 g/t from just 34m down hole at Riverina South.
Ora Banda Mining Managing Director, David Quinlivan said: “These results continue to provide a solid basis for significant open pit and underground mineral resource upgrades at Riverina South. We accordingly have increased confidence that Riverina South has the potential to deliver both a substantial extension to current open pit mining operations and a new underground mining operation at Riverina. Numerous highly prospective areas remain to be tested at Riverina and we look forward to the ongoing exploration efforts at Riverina delivering exciting results into the future.”
The main Riverina deposit already boasts an impressive resource of 3.7 million tonnes grading 2.7 g/t gold for 322,000 ounces and an open-pit reserve of 1.4mt going 1.8 g/t gold for 81,000 ounces. It covers some 1,000m in strike length and 300m in width with two separate open pits to 110 metres depth planned for the mining operation. Beneath the pits lies the Riverina underground resource where the current drilling campaign is focused.
With 728,000 tonnes at an imposing grade of 5.9 g/t for 139,000 ounces, Riverina Underground appears impressive in its own right. The company is looking to grow that resource even further down dip in a southerly direction in addition to improving the resource classification. At the moment, the resource is mostly classified in the inferred category with a smaller portion in the indicated category. Following the receipt of all assays, Ora Banda plans to provide an updated resource to the market.
Directly to the south of Riverina lies the Riverina South prospect, covering some 1km of strike and hosting various historical gold workings. Curiously, prior to 2020, an exclusion zone prevented any drilling at Riverina South according to management. Upon its lifting in April last year the company has wasted no time smashing out the metres at the prospect.
Nearly 20,000m have been ploughed into Riverina South and a maiden inferred resource of 650,000 tonnes grading 2.1 g/t for 43,000 ounces of gold was defined in October last year. Some 1,800m of drilling remains to be completed as part of the current campaign aimed at upgrading the inferred resource into the more certain indicated category.
Drilling is set to be completed this month and subsequent updates are expected to follow.
The ongoing positive results continue to amplify Ora Banda’s emerging story. It was only in June last year the company completed a DFS on Davyhurst and by July it had raised over $50 million. Construction works commenced in August, mining begun in October and the first gold bar was poured in February this year.
With exploration potential across numerous regional and near-mill targets and Ora Banda’s eagerness to get the rods spinning, it is not impossible to think that the newly minted gold producer may well add more valuable years to the current mine life at Davyhurst.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au
By Matt Birney
