GBM has upgraded resources at its Twin Hills gold project in the Drummond Basin, northern Queensland to within a hair of the magic million ounce mark.
The project is now assessed to have 999,200oz of contained gold, up 31% from the previous estimate of 767,000oz, due to a combination of new drilling data, a new geological model and viewing Twin Hills as a potential stand-alone deposit with both bulk mineable open pit and underground resources.
And if that wasn’t enough for GBM Resources (ASX:GBZ), about 60% of this resource is now in the higher confidence Measured and Indicated categories.
Furthermore, the new resource includes a silver credit of about 4.8Moz, which adds further to its attractiveness.
Potential for further growth is also present with the company noting that high-grade gold mineralisation at the Lone Sister deposit, remaining open down plunge to the north while bonanza grade mineralisation at 309 remains open down plunge to the west.
“The substantial upgrade of the Twin Hills resource is a fantastic result following a very busy year. The upgraded resources at Lone Sister and 309 deposits provide a solid base for a standalone development scenario with current gold prices and open pit mining now being considered,” managing director Peter Rohner said.
“During the year, the team has built an improved geological model of the deposits and validated historic drill data which has delivered a considerable increase in ounces and significantly upgraded the classification of resources.
“We are confident our new understanding of the deposits will drive additional discoveries in the highly prospective district and look forward to further exploration success in 2023.” Acquisition of Twin Hills
The acquisition of Twin Hills, which was completed in January this year, has proven to be hugely lucrative for GBM.
While the project added substantially to the company’s resources at the time of its acquisition – with 633,000oz of contained gold, the latest upgrade now takes it up well over half of its Drummond Basin resources, which now stands at 1,850,700oz.
At Lone Sister, the increase in resources to 12.48Mt at 1.2g/t gold for 475,900oz of contained gold is due to a move away from the previous focus on the higher-grade core of the deposit for trucking considerable distance to existing process plant operations.
This previous focus had led to the exclusion of numerous intercepts of well-defined but moderate to lower grade gold mineralisation.
With the new view of Twin Hill as being a standalone operation, the new estimate includes open pit style resources that have captured most of the previously unreported gold mineralisation.
Over at the 309 deposit, the new estimate is driven by a new geological model that addressed the previous lack of understanding of both the controls on, and style of, mineralisation and the relationship between gold mineralisation and the host rocks, along with detailed validation of previous drilling.
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