PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold junior Havilah Resources has received approval from the Department of State Development to mine the southern and northern extensions of its Portia gold mine, in South Australia.
The approval will allow the 120 m southern cutback to immediately proceed, and will extend the Portia mine life by at least another 12 months.
Havilah, in the meantime, has also been conducting strategic drilling campaigns on the southern extension gold mineralisation, and in the floor of the openpit, when accessible.
“Our first opportunity to channel sample the openpit south wall has returned some promising high gold grades over a considerable width, which confirms nearby high-grade drilling results,” said MD Chris Giles.
“Given that gold grades are quite variable, and we are dealing with often coarse nugget gold, caution is required in extrapolating these results without detailed and extensive sampling by drilling, trenching and channel sampling.
“However, our mining and processing experience to date, plus our drilling results from the southern extension, gives us no cause to doubt that these gold grades will ultimately be reflected in our gold recoveries.”
Giles said that Havilah's focus was to ramp up gold production, adding that the company was addressing this with a new trammel and various other improvements to the processing plant.