Ora Banda Mining’s Sand King deposit near Kalgoorlie is firming as the preferred site for its second underground gold mine following significant high-grade results from its first-phase drill campaign.
Assays from the first 17 holes sunk at the operation produced grades considered favourable for underground mining after drilling extended the mineralised system to 1km of strike and 300m below the surface to remain open in all directions. Highlights show a 2.4m hit at 35.8 grams per tonne gold from 176.15m including a 1.45m intercept grading an outstanding 58.8g/t from 176.15m, with a wider section delivering 11.5m going 6.1g/t from 151m.
Additional positive results returned 4.3m at 11.8g/t gold from 206m including 3.9m going 12.9g/t from 206m, 2m reading 9.2g/t from 198m and 3.5m grading 7.6g/t from 342m.
Management says the holes were designed to follow up historical drilling from the 1980s that showed potential for mineralisation at depth and the new numbers back up previous drilling results that delivered a 14.3m intercept at 8.33g/t gold from 238m including a 12m hit grading 9.78g/t gold from 240m and with a slightly deeper 2.9m section going 8.96g/t gold from 260m. The same hole also showed a 3m segment reading 6.96g/t gold from 307m, while a second hole hit a 4.9m intercept at 3.6g/t gold from 363m.
Management has completed 30 of its proposed 33-hole program and has already designated $2 million for a second-phase campaign, which will continue throughout the next two months. It says the geological knowledge, structural framework and overall understanding of Sand King has increased substantially, resulting in better definition of lode continuity and grade potential in addition to enhanced drill targeting.
The company has already enjoyed significant success at its operating Riverina underground gold mine, with first ore from its Main Lode deposit developed four weeks ahead of schedule and a total of 13,450 tonnes mined during the December quarter at 2.8g/t for 1221 contained ounces.
Ora Banda Mining managing director Luke Creagh said: “The success of this program to date cannot be understated given the first 17 holes received from Sand King have intercepted numerous high-grade gold zones of good width, as well as extending known mineralisation in all directions. This exploration work at Sand King dovetails into Ora Banda’s core business goal for 2024, which is to find and develop a second underground mine to support Riverina.”
The Sand King deposit is on the company’s Siberia project trend about 800m north of the Missouri open pit and about 37km south of its Davyhurst processing plant.
The Siberia operations host the Missouri, Sand King, Palmerston, Bewick Moering, Theil Well and Black Rabbit deposits with a gold endowment of 750,000 gold ounces. The deposits include defined mineral resources of 4.15 million tonnes grading 3.4g/t gold for 458,000 ounces.
Historical production from the site sits at 293,000 ounces at a grade of 2.5g/t, primarily from open pit sources. Siberia is 37km south-east of the Davyhurst processing plant and about 80km north-west of Kalgoorlie within the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia.
Sand King was previously mined by Western Mining Corporation from the late 1980s to 1991 by open pit methods, producing about 50,000 ounces at 4.8g/t gold. A small cutback to the south was introduced by Ora Banda in August last year and was completed early this year.
If the company makes the move to develop the deposit as a second underground operation to support Riverina, Ora Banda predicts its 1.2 million tonnes per annum Davyhurst processing plant will be full of high-grade ore and production rates will increase substantially.
With drilling at Sand King set to continue for the next couple of months, another potential underground gold mine will be a significant boost to Ora Banda’s momentum in its drive towards producing 100,000 ounces of gold annually by 2025.
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By Michael Philipps
