Dacian Gold has reported the maiden mineral resource for its Phoenix Ridge deposit at the Mt Morgans gold operation (MMGO) near Laverton in Western Australia.
The operation has an estimated inferred mineral resource of 481,000 tonnes at 8.1 grams per tonne (g/t) for 125,000 ounces of gold.
Dacian executive chairman Rohan Williams said the company moved quickly to deliver the maiden Resource for Phoenix Ridge, given its impressive grades.
“Given its proximity to the Mt Morgans treatment plant, grade and location close to surface, we will commence infill-drilling as soon as possible with the aim of defining a new high-grade additional production source for Mt Morgans,” Williams said.
“We also believe that there is excellent potential to find additional high-grade mineralisation closer to the surface in areas that have not been drilled immediately above the new resource, plus longer-term potential to find extensions and repeats down-plunge within an emerging high-grade trend.”
The new mineral resource adds to the existing MMGO mineral resource of 3.5 million ounces, becoming a new estimate of 55.2 million tonnes at 2.1g/t for 3.65 million ounces gold.
The discovery was first announced in June of this year, giving the company a much need boost.
Before the find, Dacian lowered its production guidance, blaming the return of underground performance issues.
Dacian reported reduced underground equipment availability, caused in part by insufficient maintenance personnel, hurting the company’s ability to access scheduled higher-grade stopes at Westralia.
Lower than expected grade performance on the hanging-wall lodes at Jupiter has also impacted Dacian’s planned production.