- Drilling results at Undaunted prospect include 21m at 5.8g/t and 15m at 3g/t
- Results highlight potential for Undaunted to further increase Focus’ growing pipeline of open pits for future development
- Initial open pits at Tindals on track to start production in April 2011
Gold producer Focus Minerals (ASX: FML) is pleased to announce that drilling has returned a series of high-grade intersections which highlight the potential for a further increase in open pit resources at its Tindal Mining Centre in Coolgardie.
A six-hole RC drilling program at the Undaunted prospect, which lies within the 2km corridor of planned open pits at Tindals, delivered excellent results including 21m at 5.8g/t and 15m at 3g/t (see Table 1).
Focus is in the final stages of delivering on the first phase of its open pit strategy at Tindals with plans to commence mining at three deposits from April 2011.
Focus Chief Executive Campbell Baird said the drilling results at Undaunted would help build the portfolio of prospective deposits for subsequent phases of this strategy.
“Focus is in the process of developing a low-cost, sustainable open pit production base at the Tindals Mining Centre to supplement ore currently produced underground,” Mr Baird said.
“We already have a significant surface resource at Tindals along a 2km strike and on completion of our first phase of development we should see the open pits account for about 20 per cent of our ore production on a monthly basis.
“The supply of low-cost open pit ore will enable Focus to reduce its reliance on the underground operations at Tindals. This will also be supplemented by high-grade ore from The Mount underground development, which is due to start production next month.”
The Tindals Mining Centre currently has an open pit resource of 8.3Mt @ 2.3g/t for 608,000 ounces (see Table 2). Of the 13 deposits and prospects within the Centre, three will move to production in the first half of this calendar year with the remainder earmarked for further drilling and development work.
Download full announcement – High-Grade Results at Tindals Mining Centre’s Undaunted Deposit