Gascoyne Resources (ASX:GCY) has increased the group’s gold resources by 15.6% to 1.37 million ounces with the resource grade also up by 29%.
The company reports that its Mineral Resources now totals 36.74Mt @ 1.16g/t gold for 1,370,800 ounces. The initial Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for the recently discovered Gilbey’s North – Never Never gold deposits is 1.43Mt @ 2.32g/t gold for 107,200 ounces, comprising 0.66Mt @ 3.78g/t for 79,600 ounces at the Never Never gold deposit, and 0.78Mt @ 1.10g/t for 27,600 ounces at Gilbey’s North.
Current drilling of Never Never is targeting rapid resource extension with several high-grade reverse circulation (RC) intercepts already received outside the current Never Never Resource envelope.
The company’s Murchison Region Mineral Resources now totals 20.17Mt @ 1.3g/t gold for 833,700 ounces (ounces up by 28.5%, grade up by 61%).
Gascoyne operates the 100% owned Dalgaranga Gold Mine, located in the Murchison region of Western Australia. The operation is underpinned by a modern, 2.5Mtpa CIL gold processing plant which represents a strategic asset in the district. Dalgaranga produced over 71,000oz of gold in the 2022 financial year.
While production from Dalgaranga is currently sourced predominantly from the Gilbey’s and Plymouth open pits, Gascoyne has enjoyed recent considerable near-mine exploration success which has highlighted the potential to develop new higher-grade ore sources within a 1-2km radius of the existing plant.
The company reports that these near-mine exploration activities are currently a priority focus for the company and formed the basis for an updated Mineral Resource Estimate released in the first half of the September 2022 Quarter.
An update to the ore reserve statement is also due for release in the September 2022 quarter.
Addressing the latest results, Gascoyne Resources Managing Director and CEO Simon Lawson said: “We continue to systematically focus on the key elements of our business –managing costs, retaining people, retiring debt, increasing mine life and importantly improving grade.
This annual Resource statement gives an account of the way we are creating value across our business, specifically what we are doing to extend the mine life of our key operation at Dalgaranga and how we are working to improve the head-grade of the 2.5Mtpa processing plant there, the centrepiece hard asset of our business.
“we are very pleased to add the initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the Gilbey’s North – Never Never and Archie Rose Gold Deposits to our Murchison Region Resources”
To this end, we are very pleased to add the initial Mineral Resource Estimate for the Gilbey’s North – Never Never and Archie Rose Gold Deposits to our Murchison Region Resources. An additional 146,000 ounces of shallow, high-grade material, with over 100,000 of those ounces coming from the recently discovered Gilbey’s North – Never Never Gold Deposits, located less than 1km from our plant and on a granted Mining Lease.
Further, we have modified the cut-off grade for the main Gilbey’s Complex at the Dalgaranga Gold Project from 0.25g/t gold to 0.5g/t gold. Increasing the COG reflects a more realistic statement of Resource ounces at Gilbey’s and also streamlines the cut-off grades used across the various gold deposits of the DGP.”
The CEO added that an upward shift in COG decreases overall resource ounces on paper, however, the addition of the new shallow, ‘high-grade’ Gilbey’s North – Never Never Resource ounces offsets and replaces those lower grade more expensive “paper” ounces.
“The Gascoyne team is purposefully aligned in building a strong business around our core gold assets and we are all genuinely excited about the future as we continue to drive value creation with the drill bit.”
The MRE of the overall Gilbey’s Complex gold deposits, including Gilbey’s, Plymouth, Sly Fox, as well as the developing areas of Gilbey’s East, and to a lesser extent Gilbey’s South, areas has been updated.
Gascoyne engaged external consultants Entech Mining to generate an initial Mineral Resource model and estimation for the Gilbey’s North gold prospect, which included the ‘high-grade’ Never Never “lode” discovery.
During the course of the MRE process and supported by input from ongoing drill programs, it became apparent the Never Never “lode” was in fact a standalone gold prospect with a substantially different mineralisation style and significantly higher grades and volumes than the Gilbey’s North prospect.
The total MRE for Gilbey’s North – Never Never includes 16,519m of drilling from 151 reverse circulation (RC) drill holes completed since 1997. Of the drill metres underpinning the MRE, 98% were completed by Gascoyne Resources from late 2021 into 2022.
The depth from surface to the current vertical limit of the MRE is approximately 190m (240mRL).
The reported Mineral Resource was constrained at depth by the available drill hole spacing outlined for Inferred classification, nominally 190 m below surface (240 mRL) and within the Gascoyne tenement boundary.
Entech considers material at this depth would fall under the definition of ‘reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction’ (RPEEE) in an open pit mining framework, with existing Dalgaranga pits currently excavated to 250m RL. The Gilbey’s North – Never Never deposits are located on an existing mining lease within 1 km of Gascoyne Resources 2.5 Mtpa Dalgaranga processing plant.
Gascoyne reports that the Mineral Resource cut-off grade for reporting of global gold resources at the Gilbey’s North and Never Never gold prospects was 0.5g/t. This was based on consideration of grade-tonnage data, potential open pit mining method, and economic cut-offs applied at other operational Dalgaranga deposits.
Tonnages were estimated on a dry basis. No historical mining has been undertaken at the Gilbey’s North – Never Never gold prospect.
Meanwhile, Gascoyne also engaged external consultants Cube Consulting to update the Plymouth Deposit based on drilling to April 2022. The remainder of the Gilbey’s Complex (Gilbey’s Main, Gilbey’s East, Gilbey’s South, and Sly Fox) have only been updated for depletion through to 30 June 2022.
The MRE is depleted to 30 June 2022 and reported within the A$2,800/oz optimised pit shell used in 2021 using a 0.5g/t Au cut-off grade which has had a material impact on reportable resources.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Gascoyne Resources Limited
