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Wiluna drill results show its bang on target with 24-month growth strategy
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Special Report: New drilling results show gold producer Wiluna Mining is on track with its plans to nearly double production from its Western Australian gold operations in 2021.
Wiluna Mining (ASX:WMX) has reported more high-grade hits from drilling at the Golden Age and Lennon prospects at its Wiluna operation in Western Australia’s Goldfields region, where the drills have been spinning with great success since November last year.
Expansion ‘under the head frame’ at the Wiluna’s Mining Centre has focussed on multiple high grade targets including the Golden Age and Lennon deposits.
Recent results from the Golden Age Lower zone returned high-grade gold of up to 23.2 grams per tonne (g/t).
Strong grades started from around 168.3m with a hit of 8.35m at 1.67g/t. The high-grade highlights, meanwhile, were 1.82m at 8.92g/t from 259.1m, including 0.68m at 23.2g/t; 2.50m at 10.53g/t from 303.5m; 2.4m at 12.67g/t from 308.1m; and 2.12m at 8.55g/t from 304.7m.
Proving there is still plenty more exploration upside, the high-grade Golden Age mineralisation remains open for a considerable distance below the current workings and Wiluna Mining says this will be the focus of upcoming drilling aiming to extend the resource.
The Golden Age deposit provides feedstock for the Wiluna plant and is an important source of cashflow to support the company’s . So these results, which point to an expansion of the Golden Age deposit, are certainly positive.
Located below the Golden Age Lower zone is the Lennon zone, where the latest drilling results showed high grades of up to 9.23g/t.
Notable results were 5.5m at 1.37g/t, including 0.75m at 6.01g/t; 0.6m at 9.23g/t; 1.35m at 5.65g/t; 3.65m at 2.07g/t, including 0.25m at 7.40g/t; 0.3m at 11.9g/t; and 0.9m at 5.55g/t.
“These results continue to deliver on our strategy to extend the Golden Age zone and surrounding areas,” executive chair Milan Jerkovic said.
“We aim to sustain or increase production and improve transitional cashflow over the next 15 months ahead of sulphides production from September 2021,” he said.
Growth plan
The company is moving toward a production profile of 120,000oz per year of gold and gold in-concentrate in 2021 from 60,000oz/year currently, under its ambitious Wiluna Mining Growth plan.
Wiluna has detailed a five-point growth strategy for the company over a 24-month period that includes measures to strengthen its balance sheet, increase cashflow, and expand production.
The company’s Wiluna mine is a large gold operation with a more than 10 million ounces of gold endowment, including current mineral resources and historical production.
Very high gold price
Gold prices on international spot markets have been on a bull-run of late as safe-haven investment and central bank purchasing slams up against limited physical supply.
US dollar gold prices are sitting close to $US1800/oz and are very near to its all-time US dollar high of $US1885/oz back in 2011.
Wiluna Mining is well positioned to ride higher gold prices with its planned production expansion.
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This story was developed in collaboration with Wiluna Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing. This story does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
