www.tanami.com.au
Tanami Gold NL is an Australia-based company engaged in gold mining and mineral exploration. Tanami Gold NL's gold operations are located approximately 30 kilometres west of the Western Australia-Northern Territory border. The Coyote mine once seen as a "narrow vein gold deposit" is proving to be anything but that with mining revealing mineralised zones up to 5 metres wide and in deeper diamond drill holes, widths to 10 metres. Grades over these widths have averaged around 7-12 grams per tonne Au. The Company is currently in the early stages of developing the main Gonzales lode underground and the P2 ore-body in the open pit is planning to initially target 50-70,000 ounces per annum.
Tanami Gold 'exceeds expectations' with gold production at Western Tanami in April
Tanami Gold (ASX: TAM) is currently delivering a string of top gold results from the Central Tanami project, while at the same time exceeding gold production from the Western Tanami Operations.
Highlights from the Groundrush deposit, within Central Tanami, includes some bonanza strikes, such as:
- 16 metres at 9.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold from 198 metres, including 1.7 metres at 64.6g/t gold, and 7.0 metres at 5.8g/t gold.
At the Western Tanami project, the 5,273 ounce gold production exceeded the company's expectations for April, and would supply gross revenue of around US$7.9 million based on the current spot gold price around US$1500 per ounce.
March production suffered some impacts from severe weather and supply-related disruptions.
The gold produced in April was from ore sourced from both the Coyote Underground and Bald Hill Open Pit sources, from a total of 22,574 dry tonnes at 7.4g/t, with recoveries of over 98%.
Adding to the potential of more ore from Coyote, Tanami also hit some high grade gold intersections 150 metres below the deepest known lode, confirming repetition of the high grade Coyote system at depth.
The latest Coyote highlights included; 0.7 metres at 19.4g/t gold from 501.3 metres, and 1.0 metre at 9.6g/t gold from 597.2.
Graeme Sloan, managing director, said “This is a tremendous result for the Company given that this new zone, while still being part of the Coyote mineralisation, is situated 170 metres to the north and 150 metres below the lowest Coyote development.
"This highlights the exciting exploration potential of the entire lower Coyote zone at depth."
This latest discovery, added to the continued flow of high grade intersections from Groundrush and other deposits within the Central Tanami Project, with some including visible gold, are providing the potential for a long-term profitable mining operation within the company's tenements.
Tanami continues to focus on a path towards annual gold production of 200,000 ounces annually, and has already set aside an exploration budget of $15 million per year.
The current resource inventory is over two million ounces of gold, with the company providing an exploration upside with around 5,000 square kilometres of tenements with multiple targets.
Tanami is now working on a reserve update for Central and Western Tanami, which is due in the June quarter 2011, followed later in the year by the finalisation of the Central Tanami Feasibility Study.
