PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Gascoyne Resources has reported a 15.6% increase to the group’s gold resource, which now stands at 1.37-million ounces.

The resource estimate includes a maiden mineral resource estimate (MRE) for both the Gilbey’s North and Never Never gold deposits, which host a combined 1.43-million tonnes, at 2.32 g/t gold for 107 2000 oz of gold.

Gascoyne MD and CEO Simon Lawson said that the company continued to systematically focus on the key elements of its business, including managing costs, retaining people, retiring debt, increasing mine life and, importantly, improving grade.

“This annual resource statement gives an account of the way we are creating value across our business, specifically what we are doing to extend the mine life of our key operation at Dalgaranga and how we are working to improve the head grade of the 2.5-million-tonne-a-year processing plant there, the centrepiece hard asset of our business.

“To this end, we are very pleased to add the initial MRE for the Gilbey’s North - Never Never and Archie Rose gold deposits to our Murchison Region resources.

“An additional 146 000 oz of shallow, high-grade material, with over 100 000 oz of those coming from the recently discovered Gilbey’s North - Never Never gold deposits, located less than 1 km from our plant and on a granted mining lease,” said Lawson.

“Further, we have modified the cut-off grade for the main Gilbey’s Complex at the Dalgaranga gold project from 0.25 g/t gold to 0.5 g/t gold. Increasing the cut-off grade reflects a more realistic statement of resource ounces at Gilbey’s and also streamlines the cut-off grades used across the various gold deposits of the Dalgaranga gold project.

“An upward shift in cut-off grade decreases overall resource ounces on paper, however, the addition of the new shallow, high-grade Gilbey’s North - Never Never resource ounces offsets and replaces those lower grade more expensive “paper” ounces.

“The Gascoyne team is purposefully aligned in building a strong business around our core gold assets and we are all genuinely excited about the future as we continue to drive value creation with the drill bit,” said Lawson.