Greatland Gold PLC (AIM:GGP, OTC:GRLGF) said the mineral resource estimate (MRE) at the Havieron development in Western Australia has risen by 29% to 8.4 million ounces of gold equivalent.
A 30/70 joint venture between Greatland and Newcrest (Newmont), Havieron now contains an estimated 7 million ounces of gold, up by 28%, and 275,000 tonnes of copper, or 1.4 million gold equivalent oz.
Gold in the higher-confidence indicated category rose by 32% to 4.1 million oz.
Most of the indicated gold resources (3.5 million oz) sit in the South East Crescent zone where the grade is 3.0 grammes per tonne.
Greatland also noted that continuous mineralisation has now been confirmed between the Eastern Breccia and main Havieron Breccia domains with the definition of a new high-grade "Link Zone".
The new resource stems from 93,000 metres of drilling carried out by Newcrest since December 2021, the cut-off for the previous MRE of 6.5 million oz gold equivalent.
Shaun Day, Greatland’s managing director, said he was delighted with the growth in the resource.
“The updated MRE now averages over 7,900 ounces per vertical metre (gold equivalent) over 1,000 metres vertically, which is testament to the quality of the Havieron ore body.
"The high-grade South East Crescent Zone Mineral Resource is now defined over 1,200 vertical metres (another 200 metres deeper than in the March 2022 MRE update) and remains open at depth.
"It was particularly pleasing to delineate additional ounces in the lower third of the current extents of the mineralised system, with around 70% of the MRE increase identified in the extensions to this part of the ore body."
All of the increased indicated resources will be included in the ore reserves estimate that will form part of the feasibility study for Havieron being prepared currently, Day added.
Newmont Corp recently took over Australian peer Newcrest.