A Close Look At Ora Banda Mining’s Five Key Prospects In Eastern Goldfields

West Perth, Australia-based Ora Banda Mining Limited (ASX:OBM) is engaged in the exploration and development of gold deposits in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, being one of the premium gold mining locations, globally. The company is focussed on unlocking significant value from its strategic and prospective landholding covering 200 strike kilometres of the highly prospective greenstone belt, with known high-grade resources (gold, nickel sulphide and base metal mineralisation).

Ora Banda Mining has entered a new phase with its $ 30-million recapitalisation process completed on 28 June 2019 to pursue its objectives on resource drill out, detailed mine planning and regional exploration programs after a long time since the strategic tenement consolidation occurred in 2007.

As part of the recapitalisation process, the company had also executed an extensive marketing campaign across Australia, Switzerland, Hong Kong, United Kingdom, United States and Canada to promote its activities proactively.

Ora Banda’s total landholding spans across 1,336 km² encompassing six projects (referring to the figure above) - Davyhurst Project, Riverina Project, Siberia Project, Mulline Project, Mt Ida Project and Lady Ida Project, comprising a total of 112 tenements that host two very significant geological structures (Zuleika Shear and Ida Fault) alongside an existing Davyhurst Processing Hub (@ 1.2Mtpa). More on the projects can be READ here.

Around 23 individual deposits are in Resources while two of these deposits including Missouri and Sand King, located within the Siberia project area, are in Ore Reserve with a total of 2.0 Mt @ 2.3 g/t for 150 koz.

Of its expansive tenure, Ora Banda Mining is initially targeting resource development activities at five advanced deposits – Riverina, Waihi, Callion, Siberia and Golden Eagle, that together contain 9.2 Mt @ 2.8 g/t for 840 koz, are well-analysed and close to the processing plant.

The five priority development deposits are discussed in detail below-

• Riverina –The deposit is located within the Riverina Project area, ~ 48 km from the Plant, and presents a near term low strip open pit production opportunity. Riverina deposits host three significant lodes comprising Main Lode, Murchison Lode and Reggie Lode with an existing total resource of 2.6 Mt @ 2.5 g/t for 205 koz, with a considerable scope of expansion. For this deposit, Ora Banda Mining primarily aims to upgrade the JORC 2012 Resource and define a Reserve, followed by a drilling program planned for +13,800 m. Also, resource definition drilling is well underway at Main Lode.
• Waihi – It is a priority exploration target with both open pit and high-grade underground potential, located within the Davyhurst Project area, only 3 km from the processing plant. It also presents a near-term production opportunity and hosts three significant lodes - Waihi Main, Homeward Bound and Golden Pole, with an existing resource of 914 Kt @ 2.4 g/t for 71 koz.

There is a great scope of growing the resource base at the Waihi deposit and the extensional diamond drilling has already commenced, starting with the Golden Pole mine (historically mined to a depth of 190 m and produced 81kt @29.6g/t for 77koz between 1900 and 1939). At Homeward Bound, a Hole WHDD003 drilled in 2018 returned 23m @ 9.1g/t while follow up drilling is planned.

The overall exploration program will first aim a JORC 2012 Resource upgradation and subsequently Reserve definition and extending the high-grade underground targets.

• Siberia – This is a historical mining area, encompassing the Sand King and Missouri deposits, located only 37 km from the processing plant, and presents open pit cut-back mining opportunities. It has a total resource of 4.8Mt @ 3.2g/t for 498koz, hosts a series of parallel, north east trending sub-vertical shear lodes of sulphide alteration with strong underground potential.

The planned exploration programme would offer an opportunity to re-optimise ore reserve to integrate into overarching project outcomes, and the mine evaluation studies are expected to deliver revised Ore Reserve statement without the need for further drilling.

• Callion - Also a priority exploration target, the deposit is located only 14 km from the processing plant, within the Davyhurst Project area and prospective as a high-grade underground mining opportunity. It comprises one main lode at Callion with an existing resource of 169Kt @ 2.6g/t for 14koz. An exploration drilling is planned for 4,300 m that would initially focus on JORC 2012 Resource upgrades, Reserve definition (OP & UG) and then extending high-grade underground targets.
• Golden Eagle – Also located within the Davyhurst Project, Golden Eagle presents an exceptional development opportunity ~2 km from the processing facility. The deposit has a high-grade underground mine potential with the North & Central Shoot having an existing Resource of 656Kt @ 2.5g/t for 54koz. The future plan is to complete the JORC 2012 Resource Upgrade and then Maiden Underground Reserve definition.

While various samples (un-assayed) collected from previous work programs have been forwarded to laboratories for analysis, the company informed, on 29 July 2019, the receipt of encouraging first assay results from the previous drills at the Davyhurst Gold Project, that has an excellent exploration potential.

Subsequently, on 2 August 2019, a detailed review of Davyhurst Process Plant and associated plant infrastructure undertaken by GR Engineering Services Ltd (GRES) was disclosed by the company. GRES has estimated the capital cost to complete remedial works and recommissioning of the plant to be ~ AUD 8.52 million (Estimate Time: 24 weeks) on an EPCM basis, depicting a 43% reduction in the previous estimate and includes a contingency of AUD 0.84 million.

With the drill rigs active at both Waihi and Riverina, the company expects a steady stream of news flow as exploration activity progresses.

Ora Banda Mining has a strong, well-capitalised balance sheet with AUD 14,142,472 cash as at 30 June 2019. The company is well-funded to expedite the ongoing Exploration and Resource Definition program along with a Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS), at its fantastic set of assets before going back into production.

Stock Performance

Ora Banda Mining has a market cap of ~ AUD 111.88 million with ~ 486.42 million outstanding shares. The OBM stock last traded on 13 August 2019 at a market price of AUD 0.230. On 14 August 2019, the securities of the company were placed in a trading halt, pending the release of an announcement, expected to be disclosed before the commencement of normal trading on Friday, 16 August 2019.