Perseverance pays off for WPG with whopping 607g/t gold strike
Development of WPG Resources’ Tacroola pit.
WPG Resources (ASX: WPG) has struck a whopping 607.75 grams per tonne gold from infill drilling at its Perseverance pit which is due to be mined from this month to June.
Part of the company’s South Australia-based Tarcoola project, drilling results from the Perseverance deposit have returned 11m grading 73.31g/t gold including a 1m interval grading 607.75g/t gold.
Other pertinent drill intersections were 5m grading 53.59g/t gold, 19m grading 26.74g/t gold, and 13m grading 21.94g/t.
In addition to these, numerous intersections returned gold grading above 3.34g/t, with the majority containing more than 10g/t gold.
“A lot of time and effort has been spent in developing the Tarcoola mine and completing the push back late last year,” WPG Resources chairman Bob Duffin said.
“We are now moving into an extended period of significant increases in both tonnages and grade of ore to be delivered to Challenger, and Tarcoola will shortly become a significant contributor to production whilst we open up Challenger deeps for systematic exploitation,” Mr Duffin added.
Operations began at Tarcoola in December 2016, with the project’s ore trucked 165km to WPG’s Challenger facility where it was processed, and a maiden gold pour achieved in February last year.
During the December quarter last year, 45,196 tonnes of ore from Tarcoola was hauled for processing with an average grade of 2.18g/t gold retrieved.
Across WPG’s entire operations, 11,877 ounces of gold was recovered during the December period and sold for an average A$1,656, generating A$19,698 in sales revenue.
However, the ore was mined at an all in sustaining cost of A$1,760/oz, but included underground development at Challenger Deeps.
Meanwhile, at Tarcoola the push back was completed with a large section of oxide waste stripped from the pit during the December quarter. The higher grade ore included 29,000t at 3.32g/t gold and 38,000t of lower grade 1.33g/t ore.
Tarcoola has an existing resource estimate of 1.6 million tonne grading 1.70g/t gold for 87,600 contained ounces.
However, a higher grade reserve estimate sits at 151,600t grading 3.4g/t gold for 16,600 contained ounces.
The market reacted positively to the news, with WPG’s share price rocketing more than 143% during morning trade before slipping slightly to A$0.029 mid-afternoon – up more than 87%.