Having recently delivered a 60% increase in reserves for its Davyhurst project last month, Ora Banda has followed that up with a 46% increase in resources for the Riverina underground mine of 728,000 tonnes at 5.9 grams per tonne gold for 139,000 ounces.

 

The grade improved 37%.

 

It increases resources for the Riverina mine, openpit and underground, by 16% to 322,000oz.

 

Riverina was described as a key asset in plans to restart the idled 1.2Mtpa Davyhurst mill, with a final investment decision targeted later this year once reserves of 500,000oz have been defined. 

 

Reserves stand at 330,000oz.

 

Total resources for the Davyhurst and Mt Ida projects now stand at 23.3Mt at 2.7gpt for 2.05Moz.

 

Work by Ora Banda, its predecessors Eastern Goldfields and Monarch Gold, and others have defined a strike at Riverina, about 80km east of Menzies, of more than 1km with mineralisation proven to 270m below surface.

 

Some 50,490oz was historically recovered from the main lode at the Riverina mining centre, with past owners using several shafts to about 140m to exploit narrow quartz veins that reported recovered grades of around 15gpt.

 

The mineralisation remains open along strike, down-dip, and down-plunge.

 

Additional deep drilling is planned for Riverina main lode aimed at upgrading the resource and to define extensions down-plunge to the south.

 

The initial assay results from adjoining Riverina South exploration program have been described as "encouraging".

 

An underground mining study is ongoing.

 

Reserves estimates for the Waihi and Callion openpits are pending.

 

Ora Banda had about A$15 million cash at the start of the quarter, and needs $9 million to restart the mill and become a 90,000-100,000oz per annum producer.

 

Shares in the company were last traded at 27.5c, capitalising the company at $161 million.