Special Report: The high grade resource at Wiluna Mining Corporation’s namesake gold project just hit 4.24moz. The company believes it will “eventually end up as one of the largest gold deposits in Australia”.

Wiluna Mining’s (ASX:WMX) strategy to enhance the very large, high-grade Wiluna mineral resource for its Wiluna Mining Centre gold project in WA is paying off handsomely.

An additional 477,000 ounces has been added to the company’s high grade mineral resource for the Wiluna Mining Centre, representing an 11 per cent increase since the end of September.

“Drilling has successfully added tonnes, improved the grade and improved the portion within measured and indicated confidence categories,” chairman Milan Jerkovic said.

The company has now declared a 4.24 million-ounce resource at 4.89 grams per tonne for its Wiluna project that lies near Northern Star Resources’ (ASX:NST) and Saracen Mineral’s (ASX:SAR) Yandal gold mining hub in the Yilgarn Craton.

“We believe we can eventually end up as one of the largest gold deposits in Australia and become a tier-one gold mine in a tier-one jurisdiction,” he said.

A tier-one gold mine is defined as having production of 300,000 ounces per year in a 10-year mine life and gold reserves of 3 million ounces, said the company.

Mining studies on a massive deposit

Wiluna Mining is conducting mining studies to assess the best option for mining the gold resource, ranging from selective high-grade underground mining to bulk open pit methods.

The company is aiming to bring its Wiluna project into production in October 2021 at a rate of around 120,000 ounces per year, expanding to 250,000oz per year in late 2023 or 2024.

Wiluna Mining is now sitting on an 8.04 million-ounce gold resource at 1.63 g/t from 154 million tonnes based a 0.4 g/t cut-off, an increase of 700,000 ounces on the previous reported total.

This resource estimate includes the Wiluna, Matilda, and Lakeway Mining centres plus tailings, stockpiles and its Galaxy prospect.

All up and including past production and current mineral resources, the Wiluna Mining Centre gold system has an endowment of approximately 10 million ounces of gold.

This translates into more than 10,000 ounces per vertical metre, and further shallow discovery drilling in the top 600m is likely to increase this further.

Wiluna Mining’s exploration tenements cover 1,600sqkm of WA’s Yilgarn Craton, a historic gold endowment of more than 380 million ounces, and one of the world’s largest.

An additional mineral resource update and interim ore reserves statement support the sulphide development and its funding is scheduled for early 2021.

The Wiluna Mining Centre consists of several interlinked gold deposits. Image: Company supplied

Geological confidence in Wiluna Mining Centre continues to grow

Geological confidence in the Wiluna sulphide resource is growing with each successive round of drilling the company reports, including the latest jaw-dropping results.

“Our ongoing $30 million drilling campaign has focused on high-grade areas with the potential to be mined at the start of our sulphide development schedule,” Jerkovic said.

Four drill rigs are involved in the current drilling program at Wiluna Mining Centre.

The drilling program is supported by a large dataset of historical mining and drilling data including assays of mineralisation from a historical core library.

More than half of the Wiluna Mining Centre’s gold resource is in the higher Jorc categories of measured and indicated.

Updated mineral resource estimates for the Wiluna Mining Centre. Image: company supplied

This article was developed in collaboration with Wiluna Mining, 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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