Maritana Minerals (ASX:MRT) has begun phase two of drilling at its wholly owned Burbanks Gold Project in the Western Australian Goldfields after a ‘successful’ phase one campaign.
The company has mobilised a second drill rig to advance the drilling campaign while de-risking the startup and ore delivery to the company’s Black Swan Processing Hub.
The second phase of drilling will test and extend the inferred resource area of the Burbanks Main and Birthday Gift lodes to a depth of 450m below surface, from the current depth of 250m.
Maritana says Burbanks represents ‘significant upside potential’ to the existing life of mine, as the area was not included in the Black Swan Processing Hub Scoping Study. The life of mine is currently targeted to produce 100,000 ounces of gold per annum over an initial five-year period.
CEO Grant Haywood says phase one drilling, which extended 15,000m, reaffirmed the “high-grade nature of the mineralised system”, increasing Maritana’s geological confidence in the deposit.
“Our phase two program is the next step to accelerating our exploration and development strategy for the project, improving our current mine plan to feed the Black Swan Processing Hub,” Haywood says.
Maritana expects to deliver an updated resource estimate for the project in mid-2026.
Burbanks has a historical underground mining production of 324,000 ounces @ 22.7 grams per tonne gold, with a resource estimate of 6.1 million tonnes grading 2.4g/t gold for 466,000 ounces.
Maritana Minerals is focused on becoming the next gold producer via its portfolio of assets located in Australia.
The company was formerly known as Horizon Minerals before changing its name to Maritana as of 13 April 2026, as reported by Mining.com.au.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Maritana Minerals
