Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) has begun underground production at the Reward Gold Mine in New South Wales, with the first blast of gold producing ore on the Lady Belmore Reef.
The material will start to complement the low-grade gold stockpile feed to the gravity processing plant.
In the coming weeks, Vertex – which has a market capitalisation of $46.48 million – will continue to process high-grade stope ore from the underground mine.
The Reward underground 11 kilovolt-ampere to 1,000 volt Transformer Substation is installed and powered up. Cabling to the primary fan is also completed.
Vertex aims to develop at least four mining fronts and maintain continuous feed to the plant, which will involve various mining methods.
The startup mine schedule includes mining 2,075 tonnes @ 17.8 grams per tonne gold from a developed airleg stope block. The planned stope width is the same as the interpretation of the mineralisation.
Given the stope will take some time to extract, Vertex’s team have brought forward a very “high-grade” long hole stope to begin mining this month. The long hole stop is to be mined with a long hole stope method, using the Epiroc Production Rig.
Vertex Minerals is a gold explorer focused on discovering, developing, and producing projects within the New South Wales and Western Australian goldfields.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Vertex Minerals
