Pioneer posts maiden resource at Mt Jewell

THE BOURSE WHISPERER: Pioneer Resources has announced a maiden JORC compliant in-situ Mineral Resource estimate for its Mt Jewell project, located 55 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.

The Resource estimate is for 3.78 million tonnes at a grade of 1.53 grams per tonne gold for 185,600 ounces of gold.

Of this total, 131,600 ounces of gold, or 71 per cent, is categorised as Measured or Indicated Mineral Resource.

Pioneer said a higher grade subset comprising 1.3 million tonne at 2.39g/t for 99,500oz gold, and more shallow parts of the in-situ Mineral Resource, will be its initial focus when conducting up-coming mining studies.

The company said the estimate is the first step in a strategy to build a 500,000oz inventory which it is confident could underpin a stand-alone mining operation at Mt Jewell, providing for a minimum seven-year operating life.

“I consider that this initial Mineral Resource is an excellent achievement in a relatively short period of time, and is the direct result of our strong commitment to gold exploration and belief in Mt Jewell,” Pioneer Resources managing director David Crook said in the company’s announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange.

“We now have a very important platform from which to grow the business and we intend to follow up a number of new targets with aggressive drilling programs over the next year to build upon this foundation.”

The Mt Jewell Gold Project is a major holding comprising more than 750 square kilometres of tenements.

Pioneer considers the Mt Jewell project to be an open pit proposition with conventional carbon-in-leach extraction of gold.

The project is located close to established mining infrastructure due to its proximity to Kalgoorlie where several major operating gold treatment facilities operate within a 75km radius, including those at Paddington, Kanowna Belle, Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie.

The Mineral Resource was estimated using data received from 22,000 metres of resource definition drilling undertaken by Pioneer since its first gold discovery at Tregurtha.

The Tregurtha and Hughes gold deposits are new, greenfields discoveries made by Pioneer in 2009.

The Mineral Resource estimate is based on 88 reverse circulation holes in Hughes and 78 RC holes in Tregurtha.