West Wits Mining Ltd (ASX:WWI) has added economic value to its Witwatersrand Basin Project (WBP) in South Africa with an updated JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate (MRE) that expands its gold resource by 724,000 ounces to 4.28 million ounces at 4.58 g/t gold, a 20% increase.
A significant portion of the mineral resource was also upgraded to the measured category, an increase of 766,000 ounces to 1.45 million ounces, which now represents 34% of the WBP’s total global mineral resource estimate.
The new modelling also extended the Bird Reef East, Main Reef Leader and Main Reef to a depth of 1000 metres below surface, an increase of 600 metres that also raised the overall grade of the Global Mineral Resource by 0.32 g/t gold.
The company's share price surged up to 36% following news of the updated resource, rising to an intraday high of $0.042 a share on strong volume with more than 86 million shares changing hands by mid-afternoon.
“Tremendous boost to confidence”
West Wits Mining managing director Jac van Heerden said, “This upgrade to our flagship gold project provides a tremendous boost to our confidence in the WBP mine plan.
“This mineral resource update does not include areas removed on granting of the Mining Right and are now subject to new Prospecting Right applications which, if successful, will reinstate portions of the historical mineral resource.
“Moving into the 4-million-ounce figure range at a robust grade of 4.58 g/t gold, once again, confirms the vigorous nature of the gold resources contained within the Witwatersrand Basin Project.
“Increasing the MRE by 20% in ounces and grade by 0.32 g/t sees us ending 2021 on a high note. We are very much looking forward to a prolific 2022, commencing with the production from our Early Mining Initiative.”
West Wits believes this updated MRE offers substantial improvements to the economic potential of the project, prompting it to commission Bara Consulting to revisit WBP’s scoping study with the updated geological information to create an updated production target and financial modelling which is now anticipated to be completed for release in February 2022.
About West Wits
West Wits Mining is an exploration and development company targeting gold in two prolific regions, Witwatersrand in South Africa and the Pilbara in Australia.
The company aims to transition to a mid-tier gold producer from its flagship project in South Africa’s Central Rand Goldfield, the WBP which now holds a JORC-compliant mineral resource of 4.28 million ounces at 4.58 g/t gold.
West Wits is also targeting gold, VMS and manganese at its 100%-owned Mt Cecelia Project within the highly prospective Paterson Province region of Western Australia’s East Pilbara.