PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Blackham Resources has grown its combined Matilda/Wiluna mineral resource from 5.1-million ounces to 6-million ounces, confirming the need for an expanded Wiluna plant.
The company told shareholders on Tuesday that the expanded resource of 58-million tonnes, grading 3.2 g/t gold, included an openpit resource of 33-million tonnes and an underground resource of 25-million tonnes.
The openpit resource included a maiden East-West openpit resource of 8.6-million tonnes, grading at 2.5 g/t for 700 000 oz of gold.
The updated mineral resource estimate follows on from successful drilling campaigns.
“The latest Wiluna resource upgrade is likely to add significant baseload openpit and underground feed for the Wiluna expansion study currently under way,” said Blackham MD Bryan Dixon.
“Very few gold operations in first-class jurisdictions have the scale to be 200 000 oz/y operations. Projects of this size generally sit in billion- or multibillion-dollar producers.”
The Matilda operation, which poured its first gold in October, is currently expected to produce some 100 000 oz/y over an eight-year mine life.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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