“Says The Giant is Very Much Awake”
Wiluna Mining Corporation Limited (ASX: WMX) has reported further high-grade results from a further 45 holes and 10,534m of resource development drilling “under the headframe” at the Wiluna Mining Centre in Western Australia.
The focus of recent drilling has been threefold: to increase the level of confidence in the Mineral Resource at the Wiluna Mining Centre, increase the confidence in high priority mining areas in the three to five year mine planning window, and to confirm the company’s Reserves (to be updated in January 2021).
The company is targeting infill definition and further extensions to high-grade sulphide zones in the initial areas to be mined, because every 1 g/t increase in the grade in the sulphides should result in an additional 25kozpa of production in Stage 1 and 50kozpa in Stage 2, resulting in lower production costs per ounce.
Executive Chair, Milan Jerkovic, said that to date, the drilling programme has achieved its objective to add high-grade, shallow resources close to existing mine infrastructure for rapid low-cost development, with over 35,000m of drilling completed in the first three months of FY2021 at the Bulletin, Calvert, Essex and East Lode zones. In addition to increasing the geological confidence in these zones, drilling has highlighted potential extensions adjacent to immediate mining areas.
Exceptional drill results from each of the priority mining areas continue to validate the Company’s Stage 1 target of mining approximately 750,000 tonnes of underground sulphide ore per annum to produce, when fully ramped up, approximately 120,000oz per annum in gold doré and gold in concentrate commencing in October 2021.
Supporting the sulphide development plan at the Wiluna Mining Centre is a Mineral Resource of 23.9Mt @ 4.89 g/t for 3.76Moz using a 2.5 g/t cut-off, within the Company’s global Mineral Resource of 143Mt @ 1.60g/t for 7.3Moz.
“Exceptional drilling results continue to flow from high priority sulphide mining zones at the Wiluna Mining Centre. This is noteworthy because results will underpin our updated Ore Reserves estimate to be published in January 2021,” Mr Jerkovic said.
“The company is targeting high-grade zones, because every 1 g/t increase in the grade should result in an additional 25kozpa of production in Stage 1 and 50kozpa in Stage 2.
“Indeed, the continued focus of our aggressive drilling campaign is to deliver rapid growth in high-grade Resources and Reserves through infill drilling of the existing large gold resource, and to discover new zones ‘under the headframe’.
“Very encouragingly, drilling continues to confirm that Wiluna is a very large, very high-grade gold system.”
