Integra Mining (ASX: IGR) transitioned from gold explorer to producer in September 2010 after pouring first gold from its flagship Randalls Gold Project.
The company has steadily built up its mineral portfolio through a series of acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances, and now controls a consolidated tenement package of approximately 1,500km2 in the heart of the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
Integra Mining delivers high grade gold hits at Santa, Cock-eyed Bob
Drilling continues to reveal high grade gold mineralisation within the BIF-hosted Santa Trend, which remains open at depth and along strike, adding to potential for an open pit and underground production at the Randalls Gold Project.
Integra Mining (ASX: IGR) has intersected further high grade gold mineralisation from reverse circulation drilling within the banded iron formation (BIF) hosted Santa Trend, which continues at depth and along strike.
Importantly, the gold deposits at Cock-eyed Bob, Santa and Maxwells continue to emerge as potential future sources of high-grade underground and open pit material for the Randalls Gold Project in Western Australia.
A process facility upgrade was recently completed ahead of schedule and below forecast cost at Randalls, making Integra one of Australia's lowest cost gold producers.
Deeper holes drilled through the main zone of BIF units and to the eastern side of the Santa deposit have shown a strong presence of magnetite-rich BIF. Santa area highlights include:
- 14 metres at 5.58 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, including 5 metres at 8.47 g/t gold;
- 5 metres at 13.21 g/t gold; and
- 9 metres at 4.68 g/t gold.
Diamond drilling at Cock-eyed Bob has also continued to deliver promising results including 3.25 metres at 25.10 g/t gold, including 1.65 metres at 47.00 g/t gold.
Santa and Cock-eyed Bob are located 16 kilometres east and 13 kilometres east, respectively of the Randalls Gold processing facility where cash costs for gold production were just $505 per ounce (excluding royalties) in the September quarter, reaping Integra a quarterly cash profit of $19.9 million.
Pre-stripping at the Maxwells open pit and stockpiling of Maxwells Ore commenced in the June quarter in preparation for fully fledged production from the Maxwells open pit in 2012.
Resource drilling designed to enable final modelling of the open pit mineralisation of the Anomaly C and Fly Camp areas has been conducted over the last few months.
The drilling has returned some promising shallow results, including 7 metres at 4.21 g/t gold from 4 metres and 2 metres at 6.66 g/t gold from 1 metre.
The three diamond holes drilled at Cock-Eyed Bob provide additional confidence to the grade model where drill information was lacking and assist with the underground design.
The company expects trial underground mining will commence in December at the high-grade Cock-eyed Bob gold deposit, subject to regulatory approvals.
Integra has reached an agreement with a preferred underground mining contractor and a mining proposal has been lodged with the Department of Mining and Petroleum in preparation for a December start-up.
If the trial mining proves successful, underground mining will continue to the next level at Cock-eyed Bob and underground development at the Santa gold deposit will commence.
Following completion of open pit mining operations at the Maxwells gold deposit, underground development would commence from the base of the open pit.
Subject to successful completion of the trial mining exercise, the objective is to progressively develop underground operations at the Cock-eyed, Santa and Maxwells gold deposits to the extent that 50% of the process facilities feed is provided by underground sources at an expected grade of 5-6 g/t gold.
This will be blended with open pit production ore and stockpiled ore to maintain a 3-4 g/t head grade presented to the process facility.
By supplementing the process facility with 50% of feed from underground sources, the life of the remaining open pit Ore Reserve is effectively doubled without any additional discovery, resulting in Integra targeting a 10-year mine life at Randalls.
