West Australian gold explorer Focus Minerals’ (ASX: FML) recent drilling campaign at the Beasley Creek deposit has delivered significant, shallow-depth resource growth at the Company’s 100%-owned Laverton Gold Project in Western Australia.
Reported to a depth of 180m using 0.6g/t Au cut-off and on a dry tonnage basis the Total Mineral Resource for Beasley Creek is now estimated at 3.63 Mt, grading at 2.15 g/t for 247,074 ounces.
CEO, Zhaoya Wang, said the Beasley Creek and Beasley Creek South deposits are core to the Laverton Stage 1 open pit production plan and the total Mineral Resource is now at 4.6Mt @ 2.43 g/t Au for 362,835oz.
He added that the recently completed metallurgical work also demonstrates fast and high gold recoveries for the both of the deposits.
The Beasley Creek deposits continue to grow and offer Focus potential for low capital and operating cost oxide ore to launch Laverton’s Stage 1 open pit production,” Mr Wang said.
“The PFS is well underway and will incorporate this latest resource upgrade. We look forward to delivering the positive PFS results to our shareholders by the end of this year.”
Beasley Creek is located 400m north of the Beasley Creek South deposit. Both deposits are located 10km north-west Laverton township.
Beasley Creek was mined by WMC in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, with ore processed at Windarra. The open pit was developed to 85m depth producing 88.8Koz @ 2.42g/t Au.
A scoping study was completed by Wood in February 2020 that included open pit optimisations of the 2019 Beasley Creek Mineral Resource using an Australian dollar gold price of $1,786/oz. The Beasley Creek scoping study pit shell extended to 250mRL (180m below surface). The cut-off grade analysis was conducted by Wood, indicating a marginal cut-off grade of 0.6 g/t Au.
In May and June 2020, Focus completed targeted infill resource drilling at Beasley Creek (see ASX announcement dated 28 July 2020). The drilling was targeted around the edges of the Beasley Creek pit shell to infill areas classified as inferred category. This drilling delivered several significant intersections.