Doray Minerals making inroads at Deflector

THE DRILL SERGEANT: Doray Minerals (ASX: DRM) provided the market with an update on proceedings at the company’s Deflector gold mine in Western Australia.

Doray Minerals is nearing completion of mining the open pit at Deflector with about 10 per cent of the identified ore to be removed, which has resulted in production reducing to a single (day) shift as the available work area decreases towards the base of the pit.

With the pit scheduled for completion in early 2017, Doray is currently evaluating a possible southern extension to the pit, however, the company indicated mining of any extension would be deferred to a later date.

Moving into the underground development stage of the mine, exposes high-grade primary sulphide ore and to that end, Doray said underground development is progressing on schedule with the decline and lateral access advanced 920m by the end of October.

The decline has now advanced to the 1182mRL, approximately 98m vertically below surface with a total of 200m of ore drive development within the Western and Central Lodes completed to date, in preparation for the commencement of stoping in early 2017.

During October, development of the first ore drives in the West Lode exposed high-grade primary sulphide ore on the 1200RL level.

This material will be stockpiled for treatment following completion of processing of oxide and transition ore.

Production of gold and concentrate from Deflector continues to ramp-up alongside optimisation of gold and copper grades and recoveries.

Doray explained the move from oxide to transition ore, along with ongoing metallurgical optimisation programs in the flotation circuit has provided improvements in both copper and gold recoveries.

The amount of native copper being recovered from the gravity circuit has decreased with a corresponding increase in the gold content of bullion being produced.

Doray is now looking at several options for realising the value of the gold in native copper middlings, including sale of the middlings product as-is and/or treatment to separate the copper and gold before subsequent retreatment into the concentrate and bullion respectively.

Samples of sulphide ore from underground, representing the majority of ore to be mined at Deflector, are being tested in preparation for the start of processing in early 2017.

“As predicted, gold and copper recoveries have increased markedly as we move into the transition ore and we are also seeing some very high-grade sulphide mineralisation being exposed with our first development drives,” Doray Minerals managing director Allan Kelly said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We are also excited to have commenced our first exploration drilling campaign since acquiring Deflector, targeting historic high-grade gold mineralisation at King Solomon/New Phoenix.”

Doray has just kicked off RC drilling on the King Solomon/New Phoenix target, approximately six kilometres from Deflector.

Doray describe King Solomon/New Phoenix as a series of three high-grade, narrow-vein, gold deposits previously mined as a small underground operation, which ceased in 2004.

Surprisingly, no systematic drilling has ever been undertaken on the prospect.

With the latest program, Doray is aiming to both extend the delineation of mineralisation away from the extent of historic workings, as well as to test for faulted offsets along strike of both the King Solomon and New Phoenix lodes.

It is expected that RC drilling will take approximately three weeks to complete.

Website: www.dorayminerals.com.au