Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) sold 53 ounces of gold in April while progressing underground development at its Reward Gold Mine in New South Wales.
The company achieved 78m of advance development and completed an additional 42m of development rehabilitation during the month.
Vertex holds another 32 ounces of gold on hand that is available for sale.
Although April production rates were lower than the previous month, Vertex says this rate was expected and is in line with the current mine plan.
The lower production rates were due to all ore processed in April coming from development ore with no airleg or jumbo flatback stopes available online.
Decline 3 ore processing is expected to begin in early May.
The company has also started two new airleg stopes targeting the ‘high-grade’ Paxtons Reef on the 671 and 677 levels.
Equipment upgrades continue with the arrival of a second Aramine loader now operational underground with teleremotes.
The company has placed an order for a MUKI LHBP, a narrow-vein, long-hole rig from Resemin, for accurate blast hole drilling to support production activities using smaller drive sizes.
Construction of a second Bird Machine underground truck is underway, which will remove a critical production bottleneck when completed.
The company expects to benefit from establishing multiple mining areas and development levels for underground production. Scheduling improvements continue to be implemented to increase the number of production mining fronts in the life of mine plan.
Vertex says it remains on track to commence mining the first long-hole stope in October 2026.
Current restrictions around work hours and blasting times have been identified as significant factors limiting available underground working hours. Development approval modifications to change working and blast hours for the Reward Gold Mine are currently being assessed by Bathurst Regional Council.
The Reward Gold Mine sits within Vertex’s Hill End and Hargraves Gold Project, which contains a total mineral resource estimate of 482,000 ounces at 8.70g/t gold across multiple deposits.
Write to Maddison Elliott at Mining.com.au
Images: Vertex Minerals
