PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Gold developer Kalgoorlie Mining has increased its resource base at the Bullant gold project by some 68% after defining a Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resource at its Wattle Bird resource.

Kalgoorlie said on Thursday that its total mineral resource has now increased to some 2.4-million ounces, grading 3.2 g/t gold, for around 250 000 oz of contained gold.

Around 100 800 oz of this gold was located in the Wattle Bird project area.

The Wattle Bird project lies around 500 m north of the Bullant mine site. Kalgoorlie said in a statement that the company would now incorporate the deeper diamond holes drilled, which post-date the current resource.

The holes were drilled well below the current model mineralisation, which Kalgoorlie said would allow for further investigation and exploration targeting the Wattle Bird resource, and to look for any depth extensions and upgrades.

The close proximity of the Wattle Bird resource to the planned gold processing mill at the Bullant gold operations would also provide significant additional feed for the project.

Kalgoorlie said that it expected that the ore mined from the Wattle Bird project would be hauled directly to the mill for processing, without the need for double handling and transportation of the ore, or the need for extensive haulage roads.

“This represents a very favourable mining opportunity, which the company looks forward to aggressively exploring,” Kalgoorlie added.

The resource at the Bullant project was also expected to grow as the company defined the East Lode resource, expected during the December quarter, with Stage 2 drilling completed.

A review of the entire Bullant resource model, inherited from the previous owners, would also be undertaken, and was likely to be modeled with a lower gold grade cut-off, to reflect the higher gold prices.

Meanwhile, Kalgoorlie also on Thursday reported that it has started the debt funding process for the construction of the gold mill and mine expansion at the Bullant gold project.

The company was hoping to secure some $35-million from the North American market to fund the 700 000 t/y plant, which included a 1.2-million-ton-a-year primary crushing circuit, a gravity circuit, a 1 600 MW ball mill, and leach and absorption tanks.

The approval process for the gold mill development has also started, and Phase 1 approval was expected by the end of the December quarter.

Kalgoorlie said on Thursday that the final terms and conditions of the proposed debt funding would be determined at the time of the pricing of any proposed offering.
 

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