Santana Minerals (ASX:SMI) has delivered an upgrade to the indicated resource category of 464% to the upper (open-pittable) portion of its Rise & Shine (RAS) discovery in New Zealand.
The $252.52 million market capitalisation company says all of the 1.293 million ounce indicated resources fell within a pit optimisation shell to validate its reasonable prospect for eventual economic extraction.
The upgrade comes after a infill drilling program completed over the last year, which has resulted in a slightly varied geological interpretation and enabled a firmer interpretation of the ore shapes at a slightly lower grade compared to the February 2023 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE).
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Damian Spring says the MRE upgrade sets a ‘solid’ foundation for the start of mine development studies.
“Our resource model is slightly varied but is now tighter and has a clear, consistent and predictable higher-grade core that can be the foundation of initial mining studies.
The RAS ore system remains open down plunge and we continue our infill drilling aimed at converting more of our Inferred resource to indicated category which would likely suit underground mining methodologies. We now have a critical mass to enable initial mine development studies to commence and that is the immediate focus of our team and the company.”
The company says the new and revised MRE will lead to future technical studies including an indicative mining economic study and the completion of a Prefeasibility Study (PFS), which will set a pathway for mining approvals.
A further complete cycle of metallurgical testwork is approaching completion on a master composite selected to be representative of the indicated resource.
To further validate that work a series of 10 variability composites representing different parts, grade, and mineralisation aspects of the indicated resource will be completed.
To date, some 74,049m of diamond drilling has been completed at RAS, which includes 47,952m of diamond drilling in the current infill program. Infill drilling is continuing on the deeper/down plunge part of the system and another 4,009m has been drilled since the database was closed off for the February 2024 MRE.
Drilling is continuing at a reduced rate on the deeper parts of the RAS ore system as the company shifts its focus on the economic extraction of the upper indicated resource.
Santana Minerals is a precious metal explorer focused on the Bendigo-Ophir Project in New Zealand.
As of 30 December 2023, Santana Minerals had $10.614 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Write to Adam Drought at Mining.com.au
Images: Santana Minerals
