VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Junior gold producer Anaconda Mining has filed a new resource estimate for its Point Rousse gold project, located near Baie Verte, in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Effective from December 31, the latest resource estimate for the project comprises the Pine Cove, Stog'er Tight and Argyle deposits, holding 1.6-million tonnes, averaging 2.3 g/t gold and containing 119 570 oz of gold in the indicated category. Anaconda also reported a probable reserve estimate for Pine Cove and Stog'er Tight of 887 700 t containing 35 180 oz of gold.

The inferred resource comprises 1.2-million tonnes grading 1.95 g/t gold for 78 090 oz.

The Toronto-headquartered company advised that the technical report is the culmination of all activities it conducted on the project since 2015, including discovering and delineating a maiden mineral resource at the Argyle deposit; starting mining at Stog'er Tight earlier this year; permitting new tailings storage facilities, including an in-pit tailings facility with more than 15 years of capacity at current throughput rates; building a deep-water port facility; and generating additional revenue by selling mine waste rock as a construction aggregates product.

"Over the last few years, we have built a substantial amount of operating infrastructure and added mineral resources with a higher grade than what we have been mining from the Pine Cove pit. We have already begun the permitting and development process for Argyle and look forward to continuing to develop it towards production. In the meantime, we continue to explore around Argyle and are optimistic about our ability to expand the deposit," president and CEO Dustin Angelo said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Anaconda has started work on an expanded 7 000 m second-stage drilling campaign at its Goldboro project, in Nova Scotia. The 4 500 m drilling programme will focus on the East Goldbrook and Boston Richardson gold systems of the Goldboro deposit.

The Toronto-based company said the aim of the campaign is to test the underexplored portions of the deposit, which have the potential to expand or upgrade mineral resources, particularly in the areas identified for development within the recently announced positive preliminarily economic assessment, which found that the Goldboro project could have a life of 8.8 years from an openpit resource grading 2.99 g/t gold during the first three years and underground ore grading 6.83 g/t subsequently.