Pantoro Ltd (ASX:PNR) has delivered a 20% increase in ore reserve to 964,000 tonnes at 7.1 g/t for 219,000 gold ounces (after mining depletion) at the Nicolsons Gold Project in Western Australia.
The company’s total resource now stands at 1.5 million tonnes at 8.3 g/t for 393,000 ounces of gold, a 4% increase after mining depletion and pillar exclusion.
Notably, the proven ore reserve of 75,000 ounces within the Nicolsons underground inventory reflects the large developed ore stock in the mine.
The developed stocks support the planned production ramp up to 80,000 to 100,000 gold ounces per annum.
Pantoro managing director Paul Cmrlec said: “The Nicolsons project continues to deliver for Pantoro, with continued success in the definition of additional mineral resource and ore reserve replacing depleted ore and continuing to grow the overall gold inventory.
“With the Wagtail decline development progressing, the site operations team is focused on increasing the volume of ore delivered to the ROM and utilising the ore sorter to deliver production growth targets of 80,000 to 100,000 ounces per annum.”
READ: Pantoro on track to achieve gold production rate of up to 100,000 ounces per year
The production schedule for Wagtail remains on track, with ore development scheduled to commence in the December 2018 quarter.
At Nicolsons, the development focus is in the Johnston Lode in the coming six months, with extensive capital infrastructure already in place as ore can be accessed from the existing north decline.
Pantoro’s planned drilling programs during the coming year will focus on the growth of the resource and ore reserve inventory within existing mines and within regional programs.
Well-developed ore stocks
Cmrlec added: “The focus on development during the past two years has resulted in strong developed ore stocks which bodes well for continued growth at the mine.
“With the ongoing exploration effort both within the existing mines and in the wider project areas, we are confident that mineral resource inventories will continue to grow.”