PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Barra Resources on Tuesday announced that openpit mining had resumed at the Newminster deposit, at the Phillips Find gold project, in Western Australia.
Operations at the Newminster deposit were originally undertaken at the start of 2013, where some 53 986 t of ore, grading 2.7 g/t for 4 700 oz was extracted to a depth of 42 m.
Barra said that Stage 2 of the mine plan would see the completion of openpit mining at Newminster to its originally intended depth of 65 m. An additional 43 398 t of ore, containing an estimated 3 630 oz of gold, would be extracted during the current cut-back operation over the next three to four months.
The junior noted that cut-back to a depth of 65 m would also provide ready access to high-grade underground mineralisation, which would be the focus of further exploration by the company.
The completion of opencut mining was only the first phase of Barra’s longer-term strategy for the Phillips Find project, which Barra was hoping to develop into a mining centre with a medium- to long-term underground mine.
Once the current openpit mining had been completed, Barra would embark on a detailed drilling programme to infill and extend mineralisation below the Newminister deposit.