Theta Gold Mines Ltd (ASX:TGM) has been granted a trading halt pending an announcement on the results of a pre-feasibility study on certain underground mines at its South African project.
The halt will remain in place until Wednesday, April 14, or when an announcement is released to the market, whichever occurs earliest.
TGM’s market cap is approximately $130.2 million and shares last traded at 26 cents, up from 23 cents at the market close on March 30.
Maiden underground reserve
Last week, the company delivered a maiden underground mining reserve for the high-grade TGME Underground Project in South Africa - 490,000 ounces of gold at 5.49 g/t gold.
The underground mining reserve is the result of a pre-feasibility study for the company’s Beta, Frankfort and CDM mines, all in the Central Northern region of South Africa.
As a result, the Theta Project now has a global mining reserve of 580,000 ounces of gold at 3.98 g/t from a total mineral resource of more than 45.5 million tonnes at 4.17 g/t for more than 6 million ounces.
Conversion to mining reserve
Theta chairman Bill Guy said the result from the mines, referred to as the TGME Underground Project, showed that a significant portion of the underground 4.5-million-ounce resource could be converted into a mining reserve.
He said: “The historical mining techniques of the mineral field in which we operate meant we have traditionally carried a large percentage of our mineral resources in inferred categories.”