Eastern Goldfields Limited has delivered the first ore from its Golden Eagle Underground Gold Mine located approximately 2.5 kilometre south west of the Davyhurst Mill, within the north eastern goldfields of Western Australia.
Executive Chairman Michael Fotios said the delivery of first ore from the Golden Eagle Deposit is a significant milestone for the Davyhurst Project, and marks an immediate increase to the mill feed grades.
“We are excited to see the gold mineralisation on the first level of our new underground mine, with the mining exposures being as expected when compared to the pre‐mining model. We now look forward to exposing the extent of the ore on this level and are on‐track to deliver consistent production levels for processing.”
The Golden Eagle deposit is hosted within a 10‐20 metre wide mineralised (quartz, silica, pyrrhotite and pyrite), sub‐vertical, siliceous biotite schist. Historically, mining in the Golden Eagle pit has focused on the Central and North Shoots. In the Central Shoot a hanging wall and a footwall lode were mined. In the North Shoot, mining focused on the Hanging Wall Shoot although drilling has intersected narrow high‐grade mineralization in the footwall position. Both shoots plunge north at between 20 and 30 degrees.
Within the larger biotite schist unit, a high grade quartz‐feldspar lode (QFL) association has developed in the hanging wall position of the North Shoot, and is the target of the current underground mining event. This same unit hosts the Lights of Israel Deposit (located 3 kilometres north along strike of the same structure) which has produced 4,000,000 tonnes @ 3.1 g/t for 400,000 ounces to date, through both open pit and underground mining.
The North Shoot lode was successfully intersected on the 375mRL cross cut, with an approximately 4.8 m wide siliceous biotite schist zone averaging on the North Face 4.8m @ 5.49 g/t Au with a higher grade core of 2.1m @ 10.48 g/t Au, and on the South Face 4.5m @ 3.13 g/t Au with a higher grade core of 2.7 m @ 4.16 g/t Au. Development drives are now being established north and south of the cross cut prior to commencing production stoping.
Approximately 1,400 tonnes of ore has been hauled to the surface which is well ahead of the original schedule. Given the outperformance achieved by the mining contractor (PitnPortal Mining Services) the revised schedule will see 1,400, 6,000 and 10,000 tonnes of ore produced during October, November and December 2017 respectively. It is anticipated that once consistent ore production is reached, monthly production will stabilise at between 15,000‐20,000 t per month. To date, approximately 350 metres of development has been completed by the mining contractor.
Significant potential exists to extend the known mineralisation in the North and Central Shoots. With the 388mRL drill platform established, drilling will soon commence targeting the Central Shoot immediately below the existing open pit, where limited historic drilling exists.
In addition, milling and surface ore haulage has recommenced at Davyhurst with ore being sourced from surface stockpiles being Waihi Battery Sands and medium grade (1.4 to 1.6 g/t) ore stockpiles at Federal Flag, Siberia, Mulline Rose and Giles.