West Australian gold explorer Focus Minerals (ASX: FML) today announced a significant Mineral Resource increase for the Karridale gold deposit (Karridale) to support the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) into a Stage 1 mining operation at the Laverton gold project.
HIGHLIGHTS:
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Karridale open pit Mineral Resource increased significantly following full geological relogging and model rebuild.
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Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resource now 27.7Mt grading 1.33g/t for 1.19Moz.
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Exploration Targets are revised.
Karridale is a core asset of the Company’s 100%-owned Laverton Gold Project (Laverton). Focus is well advanced with identifying sufficient open-pit mineral resources across its highly prospective Laverton tenements for a Stage 1 mining operation. The increased Karridale Mineral Resource, on a dry tonnage basis to 240m depth using 0.6g/t Au cutoff, comprises:
Focus has also updated the Exploration Target for Karridale and the broader Karridale-Burtville mine corridor for significantly changes to the initial Karridale Exploration Target announced in 2019. The updated Karridale Exploration Target is 33-45Mt at 1.3-1.6g/t for 1.4Moz to 2.3Moz. Across Karridale-Burtville mine corridor, the updated Exploration Target is 71-115Mt at 1.2-1.5g/t for 2.9Moz to 5.3Moz.
The potential quantity and grade of the Exploration Targets are conceptual in nature and therefore an approximation. There has been insufficient exploration to estimate a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the estimation of a Mineral Resource.
Commenting on the Karridale updates, Focus Minerals CEO, Mr Zhaoya Wang, said: “Our technical team has delivered a significant increase to the Karridale Mineral Resource. The process towards this outcome started in 2018 and was made possible by sustained effort to improve the geological understanding of this deposit and the potential of the Laverton district. The increased mineral resource will be used to support the Laverton PFS activities.”
