Western Australia-based gold producer Pantoro (ASX:PNR) started rehabilitation of the Bullen decline during December, which is expected to facilitate the start of underground drilling in the Mainfield during March 2025.
The company remains focused on unlocking the full potential of its 100% owned Norseman Gold Project, and rehabilitation of the decline is advancing with some 250m completed to date.
Ground conditions have been observed “to be excellent with minimal work required outside of installing new mesh and rockbolts and re-establishing services in line with the latest industry standards”.
Underground works have been awarded to RedPath Australia, leveraging strong synergies with the existing Scotia underground mining contract where RedPath provides a comprehensive full-service solution in partnership with Pantoro, the company says.
Commenting on the Bullen decline works, Managing Director Paul Cmrlec says the Mainfield at Norseman has historically accounted for over half of the 6 million ounces produced from Norseman.
“These mines are shallow by today’s standards and host high-grade zones of mineralisation confirmed by historical small-scale development in largely un-mined zones of the orebody. Pantoro sees exceptional exploration potential in the underexplored system and we look forward to realising the opportunities over the coming year,” he says.
The Norseman Gold Project is located in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia, at the southern end of the highly productive Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt, and is one of the highest-grade goldfields within the Yilgarn Craton.
The project lies 725km east of Perth and 200km south of Kalgoorlie. Since its entry to the project in 2019, Pantoro has completed more than 300,000m of reverse circulation and diamond drilling, defined ore reserves which currently stand at 958,000 ounces, completed construction of a new 1.2 million tonnes per annum gold processing plant, and restarted production across its open pit and underground operations.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Pantoro
