Maritana Minerals (ASX:MRT) reports a maiden underground ore reserve for its Rose Hill Project near Coolgardie, Western Australia.
The maiden reserve stands at 420,000 tonnes at 2.34 grams per tonne gold (Au) for 31,600 ounces, both proved and probable, with a 1.3g/t Au cut-off grade.
This lifts the company’s total ore reserve inventory to 235,600 ounces of gold across its portfolio, an increase of 31,600 ounces.
Managing Director Grant Haywood says the maiden Rose Hill ore reserve represents a ‘significant’ milestone for Maritana.
“Declaring a maiden ore reserve for the Rose Hill Underground … confirms that Rose Hill stands up economically and moves the project a meaningful step closer to development,” Haywood says.
The underground mineral resource estimate for Rose Hill has been updated at a 1.0g/t Au cut-off grade, returning 524,000 tonnes @ 4.49g/t Au for 75,570 ounces. Haywood says a stronger gold price combined with optimisation study outcomes enabled the lower cut-off grade compared to previous reporting.
Meanwhile, the open pit mineral resource remains unchanged at 287,000 tonnes @ 1.99g/t Au for 18,000 ounces at a 0.5g/t cut-off grade. Maritana notes an inferred resource of 194,000 tonnes @ 4.53g/t Au for 28,000 ounces was excluded from the ore reserve.
A July 2026 Prefeasibility Study underpinning the reserve outlined an underground mine design using long hole open stoping with pillars and a top-down mining sequence over 25m level spacing.
Rose Hill ore will be hauled to Maritana’s Black Swan Processing Hub (BSPH), where conversion works have commenced to process gold ore. The company notes first gold production is planned for the second half of 2027.
“Rose Hill’s position near Coolgardie is within reach of our established processing infrastructure and remains a real advantage for the project,” Haywood says.
“Importantly, the deposit remains open at depth and the inferred mineral resource points to further upside. We see genuine scope to grow this inventory with additional drilling.”
The Rose Hill Project is located 500m southeast of Coolgardie and 35km west of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Maritana Minerals is an emerging mid-tier gold producer focused on developing its portfolio of open pit and underground deposits and the BSPH near Kalgoorlie-Boulder, Western Australia.
Write to Paula Fabe at Mining.com.au
Images: Maritana Minerals
