Ora Banda Reports 46% Increase In The Underground Mineral Resource At Riverina Project

Summary

• Increase in underground Mineral Resource at Riverina by 46% to facilitate further modelling of Riverina Main Lode beneath the AU$ 2,400 optimised open pit shell used to constrain the Riverina open pit resource.
• A Mining study is being undertaken to define those components of the Mineral Resource that are economically viable through underground mining.
• Further deep drilling is also planned for Riverina Main lode and environmental studies requisite for mining approval process are under progress.

Gold exploration company, Ora Banda Mining Limited (ASX: OBM), advancing its district scale Davyhurst Gold Project (1334 km²) on Western Australia’s highly prospective greenstone belt, has reported a 46% increase in the underground Mineral Resource for the Riverina Project, one of the five advanced and priority targets presenting a near-term production opportunity.

Mineral Resource Increase at Priority Target Riverina

The updated Mineral Resource now stands at 728Kt @ 5.9 g/ Au for 139,000 ounces, and incorporates a 37% increase in underground gold grade, while the open pit Mineral Resource remains unchanged 3.0Mt @ 1.9 g/t for 183,000 Au oz.

Collectively, the total Mineral Resource at the Riverina Project has increased by 16% to 3.7Mt @ 2.7 g/t for 322k Au ounces (referring to Table 1), which takes Ora Banda’s total Mineral Resource at the whole Davyhurst Project to 23.3Mt @ 2.7g/t Au for 2.05M ounces (referring to Table 2).

At Riverina, gold mineralisation plunges to the south and is hosted within two sub-parallel, sub-vertical shears separated by a distance of 5 -15 metres. The drilling undertaken at this deposit has demonstrated a strike of greater than 1 km and at depths of up to 270 metres below surface.

David Quinlivan, Managing Director Ora Banda Mining Limited commented on this recent development and said that the underground Resource upgrade for Riverina enhances the existing substantial resource base that the Company has defined in this area. Furthermore, the Company is keen to systematically test these areas within Riverina as mineralisation remains open along strike, down-dip and down plunge.

For the Company, an updated underground Mineral Resource would now allow for further modelling of Riverina Main Lode beneath the AU$ 2,400 optimised open pit shell used to constrain the Riverina open pit resource. Historically, underground mining of the Main Lode at Riverina was conducted via a number of shafts, which produced 99,500t @ 15.8 g/t Au for 50,490 ounces.

The open-pit component of the Riverina Mineral Resource is reported from the Localised Uniform Conditioning (LUC) model within a AU$ 2,400 optimised pit shell while the underground component is reported from the updated underground Mineral Resource model which incorporates all blocks outside and below the same AU$ 2,400 optimised pit shell but with a cut-off grade of 2.0 g/t Au, demonstrating the higher cost associated with underground mining.

The main Riverina deposit, located 48 km north of the Davyhurst processing plant, is one of five key priority mining targets at Davyhurst with an open pit reserve of 1.4Mt @ 1.8 g/t Au for 81,000 ounces.

Currently, Ora Banda is progressing with a mining study with the objective of identifying and defining those portions of the Mineral Resource that are economically viable through underground mining.

Additionally, the Company is planning to conduct deep drilling for Riverina Main lode to upgrade resource categories and outline the extensions down plunge towards south. The environmental studies required for the mining approval process are also being advanced by the Company.

Stock Information: The OBM stock settled the day’s trade on 5 June 2020 at AU$ 0.275, with a market capitalisation of ~ AU$ 161.51 million. OBM has generated positive returns of 77.42% in the last six months, 83.33% in the last three months and 48.65% over the last one month.