PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Regis Resource’s mineral resource estimate has now been estimated at 10.4-million, with the company reporting an ore reserve of 4.8-million, following the acquisition of a 30% interest in the Tropicana gold mine.

Regis earlier this month settled the A$903-million purchase of fellow listed Independence Group’s stake in the Western Australian gold mine.

“We are pleased to have incorporated Tropicana into our portfolio increasing our total resource to 10.4-million ounces and total reserves to 4.8-million ounces. The Tropicana joint venture (JV) delivers on our strategic objective to grow as a safe, responsible, reliable, long life, low cost gold producer, generating strong financial returns,” said Regis MD and CEO Jim Beyer.

Tropicana currently has a mineral resource estimate of 7.64-million ounces, on a 100% basis, and a reserve of 2.69-million ounces.

“Beyond the long history of openpit mining, the establishment of Tropicana’s first underground mine at Boston Shaker is a key milestone for the mine and with continued exploration and resource definition the potential for growing underground production is a compelling aspect of the future for the operation,” Beyer said.

Underground resource definition drilling is expected to continue through 2021 to extend the Boston Shaker underground ore reserve.

Regis noted that additional work programmes were also under way to assess the potential for additional underground mines beyond the final design limits of the Tropicana, Havana and Havana South openpits.

“Investment in regional exploration at Tropicana will also continue to seek to identify new discoveries and ultimately unlock a long future of production at the operation. Regis, alongside AngloGold Ashanti is committed to investing in exploration and discovery at the Albany-Fraser belt,” said Beyer.