Wiluna Mining Increases Underground Gold Reserves
THE DRILL SERGEANT: Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX: WMX) reported an Ore Reserve update for the company’s Wiluna Mining Centre in Western Australia.
The update comes as Wiluna Mining Corporation transitions to underground mining and production of gold in doré and concentrate from a new flotation circuit.
The 2020 Ore Reserve estimate is based on the Mineral Resources the company announced in November 2020 with depletion to 31 October 2020 and has been updated in accordance with the JORC Code 2012 edition.
Highlights include an increase in the Underground Ore Reserve at Wiluna by 142 per cent from 1.78 million tonnes at 4.77 grams per tonne gold for 273,000 ounces to 4.33 million tonnes at 4.74g/t gold for 661,000 ounces of contained gold.
Total Ore Reserves, as of 31 October 2020, currently stand at 37.6 million tonnes at 1.09g/t gold for 1.32 million ounces, which represents an increase of 53 per cent on Ore Reserve tonnes.
Updated economics and metallurgical recovery for retreating historical tailings has increased the Wiluna Tailings Retreatment Ore Reserve from 11.2 million tonnes at 0.65g/t gold to 31.6 million tonnes at 0.57g/t gold for an added 345,000 ounces of contained gold.
“The 2020 Ore Reserve increase for Wiluna is the result of the focused efforts of our geological and mining teams over the past 18 months to grow our Resources, convert Inferred material to Indicated or Measured and to prepare for our transition to gold in concentrate production,” Wiluna Mining Corporation executive chair Milan Jerkovic said in the company’s ASX announcement.
“As reported over the past year our geologists have made great progress to expand the Resources around existing underground infrastructure for a rapid and low-cost start to sulphide ore production.
“This Mineral Resource expansion has underpinned the 661,000 ounces underground Stage 1 Ore Reserve we announce today.
“This Ore Reserve is sufficient to support a +5 year operation at 750,000 tonnes per annum Stage 1 processing rates and provides a sound base upon which to further develop the Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves for the long life operation we expect Wiluna to be.
“Despite the Open Pit Ore Reserves at Wiluna reducing, we continue to investigate ways to bring this abundant, broad mineralisation back to a reserve status in the coming years.
“Offsetting this reduction has been the strong improvement in the Wiltails Tailings Retreatment Project economics following additional Mineral Resource and metallurgical testwork which has expanded the Ore Reserve from 234,000 ounces to 579,000 ounces providing the opportunity to generate a steady, long term gold production stream over a 15-year life for the existing CIL processing plant.
“The potential for extensions to known Mineral Resources at Wiluna is considerable and so we will continue to maintain the momentum we have built to methodically infill drill the significant gaps between defined lodes, upgrade Inferred mineralization to Indicated or better and to plan for a productive and low cost mining operation.
“Our 2021 drilling program will continue to target infilling the Mineral Resources, particularly in the Happy Jack, Bulletin and Essex areas with the intention to add 500,000 ounces to the Ore Reserve base for inclusion in the Stage 2 Feasibility Study.”
TO READ THE FULL ANNOUNCEMENT: CLICK HERE
Email: info@wilunaminiing.com.au