Ora Banda Mining Ltd (ASX:OBM) continues to advance its 'DRIVE to 100' campaign targeting production of more than 100,000 ounces of gold from the Davyhurst Project in Western Australia in the 2025 financial year.
As part of this, the company is making strong progress with the Riverina Underground Mine and the Sand King Development Project, which together form the centrepiece of the campaign.
Ora Banda Mining managing director Luke Creagh said: “The Riverina Underground mine will soon fulfil the role of the primary producing asset at Davyhurst, taking over from the Siberia open pits.
“The mine is now well advanced with stoping coming online and impressive grades coming back from the infill drilling and face sampling.
"We are pleased with the rate of progress and look forward to ramping this up to commercial production expected in the June quarter and seeing the full potential benefit of the stoping tonnes and grade reaching the processing plant.
“The recent Sand King drilling success continues with a focus on the newly discovered high-grade lode system in the north, hidden from surface under the gently dipping ultramafic unit.
"We are currently advancing the mining study to determine the potential for Sand King to become the second underground gold mine for the Davyhurst Project.”
Riverina Underground Mine
At Riverina, mine progress continues to advance strongly with the company completing 1,711 metres in the March quarter — an 88% increase from the December quarter.
The ramp-up continues as stoping commenced in the 2295 level (first level) on Main Lode in March, ore development is well underway on the second level (2275) and the decline is advancing toward the third level (2255).
Looking north into first stope on the 2295 Level – noting good ground conditions (hanging wall surface).
As the capital development advances ahead of the working areas, there are options to increase as more development headings become available to the jumbos.
Geologically the lode widths and grades intersected in the ore development drives continue to typically meet and/or exceed the pre-mining expectation. The lode geometry is regular and predictable, combining with ground conditions that are considered good.
The overall development rates remain strong, with March achieving 588 metres, which is the highest monthly advance rate for the project to date. Management focus is aimed at a continued increase in the development metres towards the steady state target of 650 metres per month.
Stoping is performing in line with expectations with a mining width of 2.2 metres and excellent ground conditions with minimal dilution of 7%.
Underground diamond drilling continues with the following significant intersections highlighting the consistency and high-grade nature of the ore lodes.
Sand King development drilling
At Sand King, the drilling success continues as the potential for a second underground mine grows.
Recent drilling has led to a newly discovered high-grade lode system in the north of the Sand King project area that combines well with the previously discovered discrete high-grade lodes in the south of Sand King.
Further success has led the company to expand the Phase 2 program that aims to expand the known resource and to further build the Sand King mineral resource base.
Work has commenced on a mineral resource update that will underpin the Sand King mining study. Infrastructure, hydrological, geotechnical, mining and metallurgical evaluations are well-advanced.
Assays from the Phase 2 program have returned strong intercepts that demonstrate widths and grades conducive to underground mining and have further expanded the mineralisation area.
An extensional hole targeting the newly discovered 090 lode returned 7.4 metres at 4.5 g/t which extends the mineralisation over 150 metres deeper than the discovery hole and expands the search window under the ultramafic substantially.
Sand King long section view looking to the northwest showing new intersections in yellow text boxes.