The project hosts the producing Nicolsons underground gold mine and the Rowdies and Wagtail open pits where mining has started this month.
Mining is underway at the Wagtail North and Rowdies pits with Wagtail South due to commence works early in November.
Grade control drilling at Wagtail South and Wagtail North produced intersections of 6 metres at 26.15 g/t gold and grades up to 49.4 g/t gold.
Paul Cmrlec, managing director, commented: “While we expected some high grade ore to be encountered in the grade control programs, these drill results have again exceeded our expectations.”
Open pit plan
Mining activities have exposed high grade ore in the Wagtail North pit, and the first ore will be delivered to the run-of-mine pad in line with the mining schedule before the end of October.
The current plan which includes mining of a Probable Ore Reserve of 96,500 tonnes at 5.55 g/t gold, will see mining undertaken over a nine month timeframe.
Open pit ore is planned to be blended with underground feed sources at Nicolsons for a period of 17 months, maximising ore availability and blending capability for the foreseeable future.
Nicolsons Gold Mine
First production of gold was achieved in September 2015 and the production profile continues to grow as Nicolsons looks to become one of the lowest cost, highest grade underground gold mines in Australia.
The Nicolsons underground mine has consistently overcalled the reserve at an average of 186% on the first three levels mined.
Strong potential exists for continued Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve upgrades as mining and underground diamond drilling progresses into the deeper levels of mine.
An additional high grade lode, named the Darcy Lode was discovered and developed on three levels during the September quarter.
Grade control drill results
Results from the grade control drilling at the open pits include:
Wagtail South
- 5 metres at 28.4 g/t gold including 3 metres at 45.6 g/t gold;
- 5 metres at 11.8 g/t gold including 2 metres at 27.1 g/t gold;
- 5 metres at 23.8 g/t gold including 3 metres at 38.7 g/t gold; and
- 6 metres at 26.1 g/t gold including 3 metres at 49.4 g/t gold.
Wagtail North
- 5 metres at 10.7 g/t gold including 2 metres at 25.0 g/t gold;
- 3 metres at 21.0 g/t gold including 2 metres at 30.8 g/t gold;
- 6 metres at 25.6 g/t gold including 4 metres at 37.9 g/t gold;
- 7 metres at 22.2 g/t gold including 4 metres at 37.6 g/t gold; and
- 4 metres at 15.9 g/t gold.
Analysis
Since obtaining final mining approvals for the open pits in September, Pantoro has rapidly engaged its open pit mining plan which will see substantial production benefits from November this year.
The grade control drilling within the Wagtail North and South Pit designs has confirmed the presence of very high grade ore zones.
Furthermore, the assays are rivalling the outstanding results often encountered underground at the Nicolsons mine.
This bodes well for further testing of depth extensions to these orebodies and the possibility of defining another underground mine similar to Nicolsons.
The stock continues to have a strong trading year up 170% in 2016 to $0.172 per share.
Pantoro produced 7,372 ounces of gold during the September quarter, a 10% increase on the prior quarter.
The company increased its cash and gold to $12.1 million, nearly double that of the prior quarter.
The company remains on track to ramp up to 50,000 ounces per annum production in the March 2017 quarter.