Ora Banda Mining Limited (ASX:OBM) has announced a 42% increase in open pit Mining Reserve to 210,000 oz Au at its Siberia prospect in Western Australia.
The Siberia prospect is located approximately 39km south-east of the company’s 1.2 Mtpa processing plant at Davyhurst and 80km north west of Kalgoorlie within the North Eastern Goldfields and incorporates the Missouri and Sand King Open Pits.
The update follows the contracting of leading international mining consultancy Entech Pty Ltd to undertake a full optimisation and design review of Ora Banda’s existing Sand King and Missouri open pits at Siberia.
The optimisation studies incorporated: (i) current capital and operating cost estimates for small to medium sized open pit gold mines located in the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia, and (ii) a base case gold price of A$2,000 per ounce Au.
Ora Banda Managing Director, David Quinlivan, said the optimisation and redesign review process carried resulted in a combined Open Pit Mining Reserve estimate for the Sand King and Missouri deposits of 2,800,000t at a grade of 2.3 g/t Au for 210,000 ounces Au.
“Importantly the reserve grade held steady over the 2017 reserve estimate of 2,000,000 tonnes at 2.3 g/t Au for 150,000 ounces. This represents a 42% increase in the open pit Mining Reserve at Siberia and a 43% conversion of Measured & Indicated Mineral Resources to Mining Reserves (up from 30%),” Mr Quinlivan, said.
“The delivery of this updated Reserve Statement is an essential step in the progression of the DFS. The increase in Reserve is pleasing and augurs well for the integration of these open pits into the larger project scale mining proposition.”