to a million ounces of gold - and beyond

From Mining News - Today


To a million ounces and beyond

Michael Vaughan
Friday, May 12, 2006

AVOCA Resources' Higginsville project in Western Australia is well on its way to breaking the 1 million ounce resource mark after the company updated the resource estimate for the project, including the highly anticipated maiden resource estimate for the high-grade Athena Lodes.

Independent consultants Quantitative Geoscience and LBC Resources were engaged to complete the estimate for Avoca, pushing the entire Higginsville resource up to 870,000oz at 3.3 grams per tonne.

The Athena Lodes inferred resource, part of the Trident gold deposit at Higginsville, was calculated as 386,000t grading 8.6gpt for 107,000oz, though Avoca has indicated it believes there is substantial potential for the estimate to rise.

The resource is comprised of mineralisation from three veins at Athena, however, four mineralised surfaces intersected in drilling have yet to have enough work completed to be included in the resource.

According to Avoca, there is further upside in the fact only 250m of the 500m defined plunge is included in the resource.

At the main ore bodies of the Trident deposit, the Western and Eastern Zones, Avoca has upgraded the resource estimate to 3.3Mt at 4.9gpt for 512,000oz with more than 95% of the resource in the indicated category.

The company also completed a resource for the historic Fairplay pit and the surrounding area. Below the existing Fairplay pit, Avoca has defined a resource of 85,000oz at a grade of 1.8gpt. The company has also delineated 63,000oz in the surrounding area.

Avoca managing director Rohan Williams told MiningNews.net he expected the 870,000oz resource to break the 1Moz milestone in the future, potentially by the end of the year.

Williams denied media speculation the company may be involved in a corporate deal with beleaguered gold miner Croesus Mining. He confirmed the company has spoken with Croesus, but only in relation to possible toll treatment.

"We're talking to quite a few parties that have toll treatment availability for our Trident ore and the Norseman plant is the closest plant to Trident so it's reasonable to anticipate we're talking to (Croesus)," Williams said.

"We've got ourselves an excellent project – it's one of the best projects in Australia right now – we're unhedged, the gold price is going great, I can see us having a mine life here in excess of seven or eight years so we've got no need to be doing any corporate manoeuvres."

Williams said the company remained fully focused on completing the feasibility study for Trident by August.