Manuka’s recent extensional drilling at its Mt Boppy gold mine in the Cobar Basin of NSW has returned high-grade gold some 100m below the current pit floor demonstrating the system is bigger than previously thought.   

The positive results from Manuka Resources’ (ASX:MKR) recent extensional drilling at its Mt Boppy gold mine is providing optionality for either a deeper open pit or underground mining.

Drilling beneath the open pit returned a top hit of 30m at 7.62 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 15m at 15.2g/t, from 159m.

Other best intercepts were 18m at 3.5g/t from 210m, including 9m at 5.6g/t; 7m at 3.8g/t from 160m, including 3m at 7.3g/t; and 23m at 1.9g/t from 225m, including 11m at 3.45g/t.

Mt Boppy has so far been a very nice money-maker for Manuka and has beaten expectations on several levels. The company revealed earlier this month that the operation had outperformed forecasts by over 70% with respect to ore milled, recovered ounces and sales revenue.

Manuka ended up producing nearly 41,000 ounces of gold, up from the initial expectation of 22,000-24,000 ounces, which delivered around $100m in revenue instead of the forecast $55-60m.

Executive chairman Dennis Karp said the mine had delivered well over six months’ more ore and mine life than originally forecast.

“These new drill results have provided Manuka with a realistic option to stage a second campaign of mining from a deposit that delivered strongly for shareholders,” he explained.

“The recent RC surface drilling program at Mount Boppy has shown that the Boppy Main Lode is bigger than we previously estimated.

“It extends 50m deeper than previously defined, up to 100m below the current pit floor and remains open at depth. The wide and high-grade gold intercepts observed in 8 holes are most encouraging signs that deeper mining at Mount Boppy becomes an option, either through a deeper open pit or as an underground operation.

“We continue to pursue our strategy to identify Mt Boppy look-alikes and believe that there is potential for a deeper more substantial deposit based on indications to date.”

These new results will be incorporated into an upgraded JORC resource, which is likely to be released in the June quarter.

Meanwhile, Manuka is preparing to begin silver production from its Wonawinta mine before the end of this month.

The company recently inked a deal to acquire OceanaGold’s 1 million-tonne-per-annum Reefton processing plant, which enables the company to materially boost processing capacity.

 

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Manuka Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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