Ora Banda Mining Expands Little Gem Multi-Lode Gold System Past 1km of Strike

Phase 2 drilling at Ora Banda Mining’s (ASX: OBM) Little Gem prospect, within its Davyhurst gold project in Western Australia, has expanded the multi-lode system to more than 1 kilometre of strike containing high grades and large widths.

The 16-hole diamond program tested prospective carbonate horizons at Little Gem and Sunraysia over 4.7km and to 400 vertical metres below the surface.

It returned a best assay of 8.8m grading 6.3 grams per tonne at a depth of 320m—just 400m north of two best gold intercepts of 22.7m at 5g/t and 10.9m at 6.4g/t from an earlier five-hole Phase 1 campaign.

Defined Lodes

Ora Banda has modelled four of the defined lodes — named Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire and Tanzanite — with Diamond and Ruby being the priority targets for an immediate 38-hole Phase 3 infill and extension campaign.

The two lodes have a potential combined strike length of more than 1,000m and the system remains open at depth.

In parallel with the Phase 3 program, the company will conduct additional exploration drilling focused on continuous testing of the broader mineralised system.

Expanding Little Gem

Managing director Luke Creagh said the Phase 2 results continue to expand the potential of Little Gem as a large-scale, high-grade, multi-lode system.

“The Little Gem trend is one of multiple drill programs we have commenced as part of the $73 million allocated to exploration and resource development drilling this financial year,” he said.

“We expect Phase 3 drilling will provide significant drill coverage of the interpreted high-grade lodes to rapidly advance our understanding of the size and scale of the system.”

Steady-State Production

During the June quarter, Ora Banda’s new Sand King underground mine continued to deliver in line with key project metrics, achieving an expected steady-state production run rate of 60,000 ounces per annum.

Development metres increased by 10% to 1,633m, while total stoping ore mined increased from 5,474t at 4.2g/t for 744oz in the March quarter to 54,679 tonnes at 3.9g/t for 6,887oz.

As Sand King’s ramp-up has seen mined ore exceed the current processing capacity of the Davyhurst plant, Ora Banda agreed to sell 50,000 tonnes of ore to Norton Gold Fields for processing at its Paddington mill.

Riverina Rig Delays

Activities at the Riverina underground were impacted by drilling rig delays during the period, which resulted in approximately 3,000oz of higher-grade stope mining being deferred to the post-quarter period.

Ora Banda mined a total of 31,895t of development ore grading 3.3g/t gold for 3389oz, compared to 28,229t at 3.7g/t for 3391oz in the previous quarter.

Stoping delivered 110,887t at 3.2g/t gold for 11,398oz, compared to the previous 98,455t at 4.9g/t gold for 15,371oz.

Davyhurst Mill Shutdown

Throughput at the Davyhurst mill decreased by 2% on the March quarter’s total of 261,802t, to sit at 256,210t.

March quarter activities had been impacted by a six-day maintenance shutdown that resulted in a 7% drop in throughput and saw commissioning and ramp-up carried over to the June quarter.

The delayed ramp-up resulted in an increase in closing stockpiles at quarter end of 165,000t grading 1.9g/t for 10,000oz, including medium-grade of 63,000t at 2.8g/t for 5,700oz.

This was after the company processed approximately 19,000t of ore through Norton’s Paddington Mill under a sale agreement.

Waihi Drilling Program

Ora Banda completed a seven-hole drilling program at the Waihi prospect to target high-grade shoots beneath the historical open pits.

Drilling intersected a broad new zone in the mineralised footwall at 330m below surface, returning 8.7m at 9.3g/t gold including 1.1m at 30.2g/t and 0.4m at 90.6g/t.

Other significant intersections were 1.5m at 18.6g/t gold including 0.4m at 72.5g/t; 0.4m at 18g/t gold including 0.3m at 229g/t; 5.8m at 2.5g/t gold; and 1.5m at 8.1g/t gold.

The new zone is scheduled for follow-up drilling in the near term.

Record Production

Mr Creagh said the company had experienced a “very successful” financial year.

“We have delivered record production with over 30% improvement on the previous year, commenced and ramped-up Sand King as our second underground mine, extended Riverina’s mineralisation by over 500m and advanced numerous potential underground targets,” he said.

“Our next phase of growth forecasts a production increase by over 60% to around 155,000oz with strong cash flow underpinning capital investment to right-size our infrastructure, including a feasibility study to boost our processing capacity to approximately 3Mtpa.”

Cash on Hand

At end June, Ora Banda had $84.2 million cash at hand, representing an increase of $3.5m on the previous quarter despite production delays.

The company achieved this while investing $40.9m during the period, including $17.9m on Riverina and Sand King underground developments, $10.3m on growth and sustaining infrastructure, and $12.7m on resource development and exploration activities.

The company’s closing cash position for the 2025 financial year increased by $57.4m after investing over $124m over the year in capital projects, resource development and exploration.