Adds To Confidence And Size of Regent Resource
Sydney, June 5, 2012 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Blackham Resources Ltd (
ASX:BLK) contracted independent geological consultant Runge Limited to carry out a review and estimate of the mineral resource for the Regent gold deposit near Wiluna, Western Australia. The Regent deposit now has a resource of 3.8Mt at 2.2g/t for 270,000oz of gold (see Table 1). An extensive programme of interrogation and validation of the resource data prior to re-estimation has resulted in an upgrade to both confidence and the size of the Regent resource. The Regent Indicated resource now stands at 738,000t @ 2.5g/t. Blackham has reviewed the pit optimisation and reserve reports for the Regent deposit prepared by the previous owners and intends to update mining studies for this deposit at current gold prices and cost parameters.
Blackham's revised gold resources at the Matilda Gold Project are summarised below. Blackham's exploration work is targeting previously defined deposits which are most likely to be converted to reserves in the near term.
Regent Resource Update
Blackham contracted independent geological consultant Runge Limited to carry out a review and estimate of the mineral resource for the Regent gold deposit near Wiluna, Western Australia. The results of this work are summarised in Table 2.
The Regent deposit shows good continuity of the main mineralised zones allowing the drill hole intersections to be modelled into coherent, geologically robust wireframes. Good consistency is evident in the thickness of the structures, and the distribution of grade appears reasonable resulting in a robust deposit. Further drilling is necessary to test the down plunge extensions of the deposit.
The resource was classified as Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource. The Indicated portion of the resource was defined where the drill spacing (RC and diamond) was approximately 20m by 25m or closer and the continuity of mineralisation was good. This was confined to the upper portions of the main vertical lode. The Inferred Resource included those areas of the resource where sampling was greater than 20m by 25m or mineralisation was defined by limited drilling and where aircore (AC) drill holes were controlling the lode orientation.
The Mineral Resource estimate complies with recommendations in the Australasian Code for Reporting of Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (2004) by the Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC). The defined resource area has a total of 202 drill holes and 27,853m of drilling including 39 diamond, 59 RC and 103 AC holes.
Regent Open Pit Economics
The Regent deposit is located 9km south by existing roads from the Wiluna Gold Plant. Blackham have applied for a mining lease over the deposit. Previous owners of the Regent deposit looked at the economics of mining the deposit by open pit methods. It was last assessed in June 2006 and it was concluded it was likely to be economic above a gold price of A$700/oz. Figure 2 below illustrates some of the previous pit shells and the increase pit shell size as the gold price moved from A$595/oz to A$750/oz. Blackham plans to re-assess the economics of an open pit under current gold price and cost parameters. Management also believe there is potential for exploiting the down plunge extension of the resource by underground mining methods.
To view the complete Blackham Resources announcement including Tables, Figures and Appendix A, please click the following link below:
http://media.abnnewswire.net/media/en/docs/ASX-BLK-592148.pdf
About Wiluna Mining Corporation Ltd
Wiluna Mining Corporation (ASX:WMC) (OTCMKTS:WMXCF) is a Perth based, ASX listed gold mining company that controls over 1,600 square kilometres of the Yilgarn Craton in the Northern Goldfields of WA. The Yilgarn Craton has a historic and current gold endowment of over 380 million ounces, making it one of most prolific gold regions in the world. The Company owns 100% of the Wiluna Gold Operation which has a defined resource of 8.04M oz at 1.67 g/t au. In May 2019, a new highly skilled management team took control of the Company with a clear plan to leverage the Wiluna Gold Operation's multi-million-ounce potential.
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