White Rock Minerals Ltd (ASX:WRM, OTCQX:WRMCF) is preparing to graduate from explorer to producer this quarter with the resumption of mining at the Morning Star Gold Mine in Victoria, Australia.
The company is on-track with its accelerated plan to begin gold production at Morning Star in the current quarter.
Underground pre-production development is underway at the mine, focused on accessing potential high-grade gold-bearing reefs identified in an ongoing and aggressive diamond drilling campaign.
Drilling has so far identified five potential reefs for exploitation - Dickenson, Exhibition and Stacpoole reefs, which are accessible from Level 4, and the Whitelaw’s North and McNally reefs, accessed from Levels 7, 8 and 9.
The company is focused on developing Level 4 to gain access to the Dickenson Reef area, having already refurbished the access drive, laid rail and achieved 25 metres of development to date.
Levels 7 and 8 are also under development as an access point to extensions of the McNally Reef, identified from recent drilling conducted from Level 9.
Morning Star shapes as a stellar project
“The team onsite has done a fantastic job to manage the drilling program at the mine,” White Rock Minerals managing director and CEO Matt Gill said.
“We have already been able to identify up to five potential mining areas above Level 9, despite some 500,000 ounces having already been produced from this area.
“These drill results give us a high level of confidence that the existing Morning Star Gold Mine has the potential to develop into a whole new gold mining operation.
“The success of the drilling to date and our own geological modelling and interpretation have given us the confidence to ramp up activities onsite.
“These activities have included the recruit of more personnel, ordering new equipment, commencing access development to some of these mining areas and readying the processing plant in order to produce our first gold in the next few months.
“This is an exciting time for everyone at White Rock.”
Shares today were as much as 9.1% higher to $0.12.
Readying process plant
WRM is also readying the 80,000 tonnes per annum processing plant at Morning Star, with pre-production commissioning about to begin.
The components of the plant have been stripped, checked and refurbished as required, including the previously problematic vertical shaft impactor (VSI) crushing unit and screens. Pipe runs have been stream-lined and obsolete or unnecessary equipment removed.
Finally, White Rock is already planning to develop access to the Exhibition and Stacpoole reefs above Level 4, and the diamond drilling campaign continues at the Gap Zone between Level 9 and 14, where multiple reef structures continue to be identified.