Silver Lake’s gold resource at Deflector up 54%, discovery cost $14/oz

Silver Lake Resources (ASX: SLR) has reported more mineral resource and ore reserve growth at its Deflector gold-copper mine in Western Australia.

The mineral resource now stands at 1.27 million ounces. That is a 54% rise, while the resource average grade has increased by 18% to 13.5 grams per tonne gold.

Ore reserves are 30% higher to a contained 447,000oz of gold and 7,000t of copper.

The discovery cost per ounce in the ore reserve is $14.

The Deflector gold-copper mine is located in the southern Murchison region of Western Australia, 450km north of Perth and 160km east of Geraldton. First gold production from Deflector took place in May 2016.

The company describes Deflector as a shallow narrow vein, high-grade gold and copper underground operation. A processing plant was built to enable recovery of gold from a gravity circuit prior to the production of a copper gold concentrate via flotation methods.

Silver Lake says the increases in resource and ore reserve totals demonstrate the prospectivity of the Deflector South West (DSW) corridor as well as the potential of continuing exploration in the mine and surrounding ground.

This will further enhance returns from Silver Lake’s investment in the current year for the addition of a carbon-in-pulp circuit to Deflector’s existing gravity and float circuits, which will increase gold recoveries and broaden the range of potential ore sources.

Mineralisation open along strike

Silver Lake is pumping further investment during the 2021 financial year into both surface and underground exploration, drilling for mineral resource definition and extension.

Mineralisation at Deflector is open along strike and the company said recent drilling results from underground in the DSW corridor gave it further confidence in converting inferred resources to the indicated category.

That drilling to the south returned interceptions that included 7.4m at 98.7g/t and 11.1% copper.

“Deflector remains a relatively early-stage and shallow underground mine,” the company notes.

So far there has been two years of drilling at Deflector and the results over what the company calls “this limited period” supports Silver Lake’s view of the potential to discover further lode extensions as the resource remains open in multiple directions.

Silver Lake’s new investment Black Cat reports JORC resources at acquisitions

Last week, Silver Lake announced it had become a substantial shareholder in fellow West Australian gold play Black Cat Syndicate (ASX: BC8), taking an 8.74% stake.

This followed its sale to Black Cat of two gold projects east of Kalgoorlie, Fingals and Rowe’s Find, in return for 8.4 million shares in Black Cat.

Now that the acquisition has been completed, Black Cat is able to report the two projects have a reportable JORC resource of 8.7Mt at 2.6g/t for a contained 711,000oz.

The company expects to announce drilling plans later this month.

The acquisitions increased Black Cat’s resources by 145% and the newly acquired projects are located on granted mining leases with “strategic proximity” to Black Cat’s Bulong gold project.