PERTH (miningweekly.com) - Gold developer Greenstone Resources has poured its first gold from the Burbanks mining center, in Western Australia, as part of the Stage 1 trial mining agreement joint venture (JV) with FMR Investments.

About 20 500 t of low-grade development ore were processed at the Greenfields mill during the first processing campaign, over a nine-day period at the end of December. This resulted in a maiden gold pour of 840 oz of gold, worth an estimated A$2.1-million.

Greenstone said on Tuesday that the recovered doré bullion has subsequently been shipped to the Perth Mint for refining and sale, with first revenue to the JV expected over the coming weeks. 

With high-grade underground ore stoping activities now underway,a further two to three processing campaigns are expected, totalling between 60 000 t and 75 000 t over the coming months.

“This represents a major milestone in Greenstone’s renewed strategy, serving to expedite the path to long-term and sustainable commercial production through the provision of invaluable technical information associated with geology, underground mining and processing," said Greenstone MD and CEO Chris Hansen.

"Importantly, this initial processing campaign only used the low-grade development ore mined during the establishment of underground operations. As high-grade underground stoping ramps up over the coming months, we expect a further two to three high-grade milling campaigns.

"While trial mining activities serve to materially de-risk current and future operations, the core focus for the team remains on building our resource inventory from the current base of 145 700 oz through the continuation of aggressive exploration activities at Burbanks," said Hansen.

"Planning is currently well advanced for the first drill campaign of 2022, with a multi-purpose diamond and reverse circulation drill rig scheduled for mobilisation in late January. The initial focus will be on following up on the high-grade mineralisation intercepted immediately north of the Burbanks mining centre in late December 2021, where high-grade mineralisation was previously thought to terminate due to faulting."