Alkane Resources Ltd (ASX:ALK, OTC:ALKEF) increased gold ore reserves at the Tomingley Gold Project (TGP) by 11% to 705,000 ounces during FY24 with its annual resources and reserves statement revealing a mineral resource base in Central West New South Wales of 10 million ounces.
Significantly for near-term production capabilities, 68% of the resources, or 6.8 million ounces, are classified as measured and indicated.
Growth potential
And with exploration ongoing, including extensive drilling, at TGP as well as the Northern Molong Porphyry Project (NMPP) to the northeast, there is strong potential for further resource growth.
Alkane’s annual resources and reserves statement as at June 30, 2024, is in accordance with the 2012 edition of the Australasian Code for Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC 2012).
Tomingley statement
The TGP southwest of Dubbo includes the Tomingley Gold Operations (TGO); the Roswell, San Antonio and McLeans deposits (Tomingley Gold Extension Project or TGEP); and the Peak Hill Gold Project (PHGP).
Tomingley has been operating since January 2014 and open pit mining ceased in 2023 with the TGO operation then transitioning to fully underground mining at Wyoming One, Caloma One and Caloma Two.
Underground drilling at the Roswell deposit resulted in a change to the resource envelope and expanded reserves. The San Antonio and McLeans deposits, also in the TGEP, were unchanged.
After extensive underground development, ore mining and extraction commenced during FY24 at the Roswell deposit.
Significant drilling programs to expand and refine resources/reserves at the Tomingley underground operation (68,155 metres) and the large Boda-Kaiser gold-copper deposits (55,010 metres) were completed during the year.
Mineral resources and ore reserves for TGP have been re-estimated to account for additional resources, mining depletion, changes in gold price and operating costs. The net result was an 11% increase in reserve ounces:
- Total mineral resources - 24.27 million tonnes grading 2.12 g/t gold for 1.656 million ounces; and
- Total ore reserves - 11.76 million tonnes grading 1.9 g/t for 705,000 ounces.
NMPP estimates
During FY24 extensive RC and core drilling continued at the Boda and nearby Kaiser deposits within the NMPP, north of Wellington, which facilitated the estimation of indicated and inferred resources.
The revised resource is 796 million tonnes grading 0.33 g/t gold and 0.18% copper for 8.3 million ounces gold and 1.3 million tonnes copper.
At a 0.3 g/t gold and 0. 4 g/t gold-equivalent cut-off for a combined 0.58 g/t gold equivalent there are 14.7 million gold equivalent ounces.
The Boda-Kaiser program is operated from the company’s main exploration base at Orange with a scoping study for the development of these resources completed in early July 2024.
This study demonstrates sound financial parameters for a base-case 20 million tonnes per annum mining and processing scenario, with an estimated NPV (7%) of A$1.8 billion, 24% IRR and undiscounted A$5.7 billion free cash flow over an initial 17-year life.