Ora Banda Mining Ltd (ASX:OBM) has increased the ore reserve at its Davyhurst Gold Project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia to 6.2 million tonnes at 2.4 g/t gold for 470,000 ounces.
The company has completed an update of mineral resources and ore reserves for the period ending June 30, 2021, taking into account mining depletion with the increase in reserves particularly encouraging.
OBM’s proved and probable ore reserve for the six key deposits at Davyhurst including Riverina, Waihi, Callion, Missouri and Sand King open pits as well as Golden Eagle underground, is 10,000 ounces greater than the estimate of June 30, 2020.
This was calculated at a gold price of A$2,200 per ounce of gold.
The updated total mineral resource estimate across six key deposits at the project now sits at 23.4 million tonnes at 2.8 g/t for 2.14 million ounces of gold a small reduction on the June 30, 2020, estimate of 24.3 million tonnes at 2.8 g/t for 2.17 million ounces.
Ora Banda managing director Peter Nicholson said: "Work continues on the additional expansion of resources and reserves across the tenement holding and we look forward to further updates as these are delivered.”
Mining depletions
The increase in reserves is largely due to the extension of ore reserves for the Riverina open pit and Golden Eagle underground, improvements to the Missouri design and inclusion of surface stockpiles (420,000 tonnes at 1.4 g/t).
This is despite FY21 ore reserve mining depletions of around 28,000 ounces and an uplift in projected costs that contributed to increased cut-off grades.