Ora Banda 35% output lift just shy of 2025 WA gold | Australian Markets

ASX-listed gold producer Ora Banda Mining has flagged a hefty 35 per cent lift in its annual gold output to 95,000 ounces at its Davyhurst project in Western Australia’s famend Goldfields area.

However, the company will land just shy of its 2025 manufacturing and value steerage after encountering delays in a key mill improve.

Ora Banda says gold manufacturing for April and May clocked in at 12,100 ounces and the June quarter is predicted to ship about 24,500 ounces. If June hits its forecast of up to 12,500 ounces, Ora Banda will finish the financial 12 months 5 per cent short of its decrease finish steerage of 100,000 ounces.

All-in sustaining prices are tipped to come back in at about $2600 per gold ounce, or 4 per cent above the company’s beforehand guided high-end estimate of $2500 per ounce.

Keen to emphasize the upside, management factors out that the anticipated 2025 complete represents a vital lift over final 12 months’s 70,000-ounce end result and that current processing bottlenecks are actually behind them.

A deliberate improve to put in new lifters and liners to the mine’s main mill introduced a key problem previously few months and the commissioning course of dragged on longer than anticipated, disrupting output for April and May. With the works now accomplished, the plant is now nailing throughput charges of up to 4,000 tonnes per day.

Meanwhile, the company is hitting its stride on the mining entrance. Production from Ora Banda’s Riverina and Sand King pits is forecast to contribute a mixed 14,500 ounces in June alone. Riverina is in steady-state manufacturing, whereas Sand King is ramping up following a restart.

Ora Banda can also be sitting on a healthy ore stockpile, constructed up during the processing plant’s downtime. At the top of May, the company had 83,000 tonnes of medium-grade ore at 2.8 grams per tonne (g/t) for 7,500 ounces and 114,000t of low-grade materials grading 1.2g/t for an further 4,400 ounces.

Three years in the past, Davyhurst was treading water, churning out just 12,000 ounces of gold per quarter with grades barely hitting 1.5g/t.

That modified when seasoned mining hand Luke Creagh took Ora Banda’s reins as managing director. In a beautiful turnaround, Creagh breathed new life into the ageing project, doubling manufacturing and proving the doubters mistaken on an asset many had already written off as yesterday’s story.

Davyhurst now has two working underground mines, with the Riverina deposit initially pulling a lot of the weight and half filling the 1.3 million-tonne processing plant.

During the previous six months, management’s precedence has moved to getting the company’s newer Sand King deposit up to hurry to fill the mill full of high-grade feed. The transfer will present Ora Banda with one other vital inflection level for elevated manufacturing and money circulation.

The company has additionally not too long ago knocked it out of the park with some scorching, high-grade intercepts at its new Little Gem discovery, south of its Riverina gold camp.

Best hits at Little Gem included a whopping 22.7 metres grading 5g/t gold from 481m, together with a red-hot 6.2m part working at 10.8g/t. The similar gap stored giving, with a additional 10.9m slice of 6.4g/t gold just 40m additional down.

Notably, the discover seems to hyperlink up a chain of prospects from British Lion, by way of Little Gem and down to the 32,000-ounce Sunraysia deposit.

The company beat a fast march back to website, with the drill rigs now smashing out a 16-hole follow-up blitz to see what different treasures could also be lurking beneath.

At the top of March, Ora Banda sat on an eye-watering money pile of $80.7 million, giving it a lot of firepower to chase discoveries and fast-track extension drilling at Riverina and Sand King. The company is aiming to grow the project’s 1.95-million-ounce international useful resource grading 2.6g/t gold.

With the upgraded plant now hitting full stride and mining firing on all cylinders, Ora Banda seems to be primed for a huge 12 months forward, backed by strong stockpiles and a clear runway to hit its 150,000-ounce annual gold goal.

Despite falling barely short of steerage this 12 months, Ora Banda’s manufacturing trajectory stays firmly upward. With its key infrastructure hurdles now resolved, Ora Banda’s push to develop into a mid-tier Aussie gold producer seems on observe to proceed.

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