Portia gets another year

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Junior Havilah Resources has revealed that the mine life of its Portia gold operation, in South Australia, could be extended by 12 months.

The ASX-listed company previously discovered a significant extension to the gold mineralisation at Portia, in the south wall of the openpit.

Based on internal non-Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource estimates for this mineralisation, the company and its mining partner Consolidated Mining and Civil (CMC) have now agreed in principle to proceed with a 120 m cutback of the south wall.

A memorandum of understanding and formal legal documents are currently being prepared, while Havilah is working to secure approvals for the extended operation that will entail the expansion of the overburden waste dump and tailings storage facility.

The full 120 m cutback would extend the Portia mine life by a further 12 months, Havilah told shareholders, and based on mining experience and ore reconciliation, the southern extension mineralisation was expected to yield similar returns to the current Portia operation.

“Portia started out as a short 18-month mining operation and now on cue, the current openpit is rapidly approaching its original design footprint,” said MD Chris Giles on Friday.

“Our earlier drilling has confirmed southern extensions to the Portia gold mineralisation and we have been discussing with CMC for some time about a pit wall cutback, which will potentially extend the Portia mine life for at least another 12 months.

“Drilling of bedrock beneath the openpit floor has confirmed economic grades of gold mineralisation for a further 24 m depth and we expect to ultimately mine all of this gold bearing bedrock material and possibly even beyond this depth, subject to our ongoing drilling results.”