Ora Banda Ramping Up Resource Drilling And Exploration Activities Post Relisting

Ora Banda Mining Limited (ASX: OBM), based in Perth, Australia, is engaged in the exploration and development of gold deposits in one of the worlds’ Tier 1 gold mining jurisdiction, the Eastern Goldfields region of Western Australia. Recently on 12 August 2019, the company disclosed its Corporate Presentation, throwing light on its high-impact exploration & mine planning underway to unlock significant value from its large-scale prospective tenure covering 200 strike kilometres on the greenstone belt.

Source: Company’s Website

The company’s total landholding comprises six projects (see figure below), encompassing around 112 tenements which together span across 1,336 km².

Of the deposits mentioned above, Ora Banda Mining is initially focussed on five advanced deposits (referring to the figure below), all well-understood and close to the plant and together contain 9.2Mt @ 2.8g/t for 840koz. Also, only two of these deposits are in Mineral Reserve including Missouri and Sand King with 1.20 Mt @ 2.2g/t Au for 85Koz and 820,000t @ 2.5g/t Au for 65Koz, respectively.

The objective is to upgrade the resource, move towards resource and reserve definition and, that would be incorporated into the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) where key parameters of an initial five-year mining investment case would be presented.

GR Engineering Services Ltd recently estimated (announced on 2 August 2019) a low capital cost estimate of $ 8.5 million (including $ 0.84 million contingency) to complete remedial works and recommission the existing Davyhurst Processing Hub (@ 1.2Mtpa) on an EPCM basis. Also, the time to complete the recommissioning is expected to be ~24 weeks from commencement. The processing plant configuration supports treatment of both oxide and fresh ores and there is a significant infrastructure in place to facilitate near term production.

Source: Corporate Presentation

June 2019 Quarterly Highlights

Relisting on the ASX – The three months to 30 June 2019 were indicative of a new dawn for Ora Banda Mining Ltd as its securities were reinstated to official quotation on the Australian Securities Exchange on 28 June 2019 following a successful $ 30-million recapitalisation process. The company now has a strong, well-capitalised balance sheet that is free of all debt and creditor claims. With a cash at hand of $ 14.14 million as at 30 June 2019 and at a time when the gold price is currently at near record highs (+AUD 2,000 per oz), Ora Banda is very well-funded to aggressively progress its planned resource drill out, DFS and regional exploration programs over the coming 12-month period.

Exploration & Resource Drilling- Subsequently on 8 July 2019, the company informed that it had commenced resource definition infill drilling program at Riverina with a RC drilling completed for ~ 600 m until that day and the first group of samples were in the process of being assayed.

In addition, as part of overall regional exploration program, in the first full week since re-listing, a five-hole RC drill program (580 m) at the Mt Ida prospect and a two-hole RC drill program (200 m) at the Queen of Hearts prospect were also executed. The samples for the same have also been logged and are awaiting assay.

A total of 2,568 diamond core samples from eight previously drilled holes in the high-grade Waihi area and a further 2,684 diamond core, RC and auger samples from previous exploration programs, all of which were not assayed at the time of drilling due to prior funding constraints have also been forwarded to multiple laboratories to expedite analysis.

Latest Drilling Update

On 29 July 2019, Ora Banda Mining announced that the assay results from previous drilling programs at the Davyhurst Gold Project have returned notable results, demonstrating the high-grade nature of the gold mineralisation, particularly for the Waihi intersections, along with the exploration potential of the broader project area. A snapshot of the first assays is given below-

• Waihi (Resource Drilling): 23m @ 9.1g/t Au from 128m, including 13m @ 7.1g/t Au and 7m @ 16.6g/t Au.
• Riverina (Resource Drilling): 15m @ 2.8g/t Au from 24m including 4.0m @ 6.2g/t Au.
• Golden Eagle (Resource Drilling):7m @ 9.5g/t Au from 186m.
• Siberia (Exploration Drilling):0m @ 15.3g/t Au from 13m including 2.0m @ 29.8g/t Au

The results have provided a positive start to the ongoing resource drilling and exploration activities that are ramping up with two active drill rigs (initial focus at Waihi and Riverina).

On 7 August 2019, the company announced to have established a Small Shareholding Sale Facility for certain shareholders with holdings valued at less than AUD 500 (Record Date : 5.00pm (WST) on 6 August 2019), to enable them to sell their shareholding in Ora Banda without incurring brokerage or handling costs. A timeline concerning the Facility is as follows:

Source: Company’s announcement dated 7 August 2019

Stock Performance

Ora Banda Mining has a market capitalisation of around AUD 114.31 million to date with ~ 486.42 million shares outstanding. On 12 August 2019, the OBM stock closed at AUD 0.235 with ~ 200,028 shares traded. Besides, the stock has delivered positive returns of 95.83% in the last one month and 46.87% YTD.