Ora Banda Mining Ltd (ASX:OBM) has confirmed strong southern and depth extensions well beyond the current underground mineral resource boundary during a phase 2 gold exploration program at the Riverina Project in Western Australia.
Standout assays include:
- Main Lode West: 8.1 metres at 13.4 g/t gold from 515.87 metres, including 6.1 metres at 17.4 g/t.
- Main Lode East: Intervals ranging from 2.0 metres at 7.1 g/t from 424 metres to 6.1 metres at 2.6 g/t from 401.9 metres.
- Murchison Lode: Intervals including 2 metres at 10.6 g/t from 29 metres and 4 metres at 4.5 g/t from 55 metres, including 2 metres at 7.8 g/t.
The first hole in the program yielded a result of 2 metres at 4.4 g/t gold, confirming structural setting and mineralisation consistent with the current open pit mining, which is averaging more than 1,750 ounces per vertical metre (OPVM).
Furthermore, the Sand King exploration holes are planned to target high-grade extensions at depth, with previous drilling results that include a range of intersections such as 4 metres at 17.0 g/t gold and 6.1 metres at 13.1 g/t.
Expanding high-grade corridor
Ora Banda managing director Luke Creagh said: “The results from the extensional drilling at Riverina continue to expand the high-grade mineralisation corridor, which has now been proven and expanded to over 1.5 kilometres of strike and over 500 metres deep.
“The exciting part is the drilling is not only improving the size of the system but also demonstrating that good widths and high grades go well beyond our current resource with intercepts of 4 metres at 9.8 grams per tonne to the south, and 6 metres at 17.1 grams per tonne at depth.
“We still consider this very early days in exploring Riverina and these impressive results support our expectation that Riverina could be a very big system with the potential to support both mine life extension and production growth as we continue to explore."
Plan view of the ~1,200km2 tenement holding
Drilling at British Lion
Drilling under the British Lion prospect targeting southern extensions has confirmed high-grade mineralization of the Main Lode, with an additional 700 metres strike south of the FID inventory.
The high-grade Main Lode now extends over a 1.5-kilometre strike, more than 500 metres deep, and remains open in all directions.
This southern extension substantially broadens the exploration window, indicating that the 700-metre strike extension could support an additional decline corridor and potential production growth.
Siberia Project
The Siberia area is about 37 kilometres south of the Davyhurst processing plant and includes the Missouri and Sand King open pits, which are both being mined in FY24.
Both the Missouri orebody and Sand King orebodies are open at depth, and the current program will test the down-dip continuity of these orebodies.
Previous Sand King drilling has identified the potential for mineralisation to continue at depth below the existing open pit.
The known strike of Sand King is more than 800 metres with several high-grade continuous sub-vertical and parallel lodes open at depth.
In particular, the initial program will test the continuity of the high-grade SL03 Lode, which is open at depth and has previous intercepts of 6 metres at 13.1 g/t and 4 metres at 17.0 g/t gold.
Creagh adds: “A key value driver for the business is commencing a second high-grade underground, and our next exploration program is targeting underground potential at our current mining area of Missouri and Sand King.
“The phase 1 program is testing the down dip extension of the Missouri open pit that is averaging up to 2,000 ounces per vertical metre, as well as the continuity of the high-grade lodes of Sand King at depth.”