Mandalay Resources Corp. (TSX:MND, OTCQB:MNDJF) has increased the mineral reserves at its Costerfield project in Australia by 24%, according to an updated mineral resource estimate.
The project now contains 312,000 gold ounces in the proven and probable category, up from 255,000 ounces contained in the last estimate.
Mandalay has also extended Costerfield’s life of mine by two years to 2027, net of depletion for 2021 production, the company said.
The good news extended to Mandalay’s Bjorkdal mine in Sweden, where the firm increased the number of gold ounces in the measured and indicated category by 59,000 ounces to 1,146,000 ounces.
READ: Mandalay Resources hits some of the 'best grades seen at Björkdal' with recent drilling
That brings Mandalay's total proven and probable mineral reserves to 854,000 ounces of gold and 19,600 tonnes of antimony, compared to 799,000 ounces of gold and 21,800 tonnes of antimony at 2020 year-end, the company said.
"Mandalay's exploration efforts in 2021 yielded significant success,” CEO Dominic Duffy said in a statement.
“We made major additions of Mineral Reserves at Costerfield through the successful discovery of the Shepherd zone below the Youle deposit, and discovered significantly higher gold grades to the east at depth at Bjorkdal.”
Five continuous high-grade veins have been discovered within Shepherd, which is expected to be an area of substantial mineral resources and reserves growth over the coming years, Duffy told investors. Shepherd has already added 296,000 tonnes of ore at a grade of 12.4 grams per ton (g/t) gold and 1.0% antimony into mineral reserves, which Duffy said “highlights the richness” of the Costerfield mineral system.
At Bjorkdal, Mandalay’s exploration focus was on identifying areas that could potentially add higher-grade mine feed due to the mine’s current long nine-year mine life. CEO Duffy called the program “extremely successful” thanks to the discovery of the high-grade zones to the east at depth of the Main and Central zones.
The firm said that, as most of the significant results for this area were recovered after the data cut-off point for the 2021 update, the success of the program and the significant potential in upgrading the overall grades will be reflected in the following years.
In 2022, Mandalay is advancing several highly prospective areas at both properties, Duffy explained. “At Bjorkdal, exploration continues north of the Aurora orebody as well as the commencement of surface drilling on regional Bjorkdal style and multi-element targets. At Costerfield, the potential of further Youle and Shepherd style targets will continue to be explored in parallel with renewed efforts on satellite deposits within 2 kilometres of the mining activities."
Toronto-based Mandalay is focused on advancing its Australian and Swedish mining operations.
Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com
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