Barton Gold Upgrades Challenger Open Pit and Underground MRE Ahead of All Ords Inclusion
Barton Gold (ASX: BGD) (OTCQB: BGDFF) has grown the mineral resource estimate (MRE) at its Challenger project in South Australia to 313,000 ounces of gold (10.6 million tonnes at 0.92 grams per tonne) including 194,000oz (1.87Mt at 3.23g/t) in existing open pit and underground mines.
The MRE update follows Barton’s detailed remodelling of mineralisation at existing development drives within Challenger’s historical underground mine, and replaces the June estimate of 223,000oz gold (9.56Mt at 0.72g/t) including a total of 81,200oz contained in existing high-grade zones.
Barton had temporarily excluded the majority of Challenger’s underground mineralisation from the previous estimate.
Resource Spread
The new Challenger resource occurs over the Main open pit with 70,000oz gold (0.65Mt at 3.36g/t), the West open pit with 11,600oz (0.03Mt at 10.7g/t), Underground with 89,400oz (0.98Mt at 2.84g/t); and Deeps with 23,000oz (0.21Mt at 3.50g/t).
The Challenger leases also contain two tailings storage facilities with a combined indicated resource of 8.3Mt gold at 0.4g/t for 107,300oz.
Almost all of the new mineralisation is located nearby to serviceable open-pit and underground developments as well as Barton’s mothballed Central Gawler Mill, indicating opportunities for low-cost access and production.
Central Gawler Restart
Barton managing director Alexander Scanlon said the upgraded resource would pave the way for the $26 million restart of Central Gawler to its original annual design capacity of 600,000t fresh ore.
“We now have more than 300,000oz in confirmed resources adjacent to Central Gawler and the pieces are in place for the start-up of a multi-year Stage 1 operation, representing a significant opportunity for us to transition to production during a period of record high gold prices,” he said.
“The mill offers a potentially shorter, lower-cost, and lower-risk pathway to operations and our re-rating to producer status, which will then generate revenues and cash flow to fund our planned regional growth.”
Mr Scanlon said the company would commence definitive feasibility studies targeting a two-phase, de-risked development and the start of Stage 1 by December 2026.
All Ordinaries Inclusion
Barton Gold has also been admitted to the S&P ASX All Ordinaries Index of Australia’s 500 largest and most liquid public companies.
Mr Scanlon said the company was excited by the news, which came out after the market closed on Friday.
“This news could not come at more appropriate time as we accelerate our Challenger Stage 1 operations in parallel with a pre-feasibility study and mining lease application at our large-scale Tunkillia project,” he said.
“We have an exciting 18 months ahead and inclusion in this index will help raise our profile.”