Forrestania Resources has delivered a substantial 26 per cent surge in contained gold ounces at its flagship Johnson Range deposit in Western Australia, expanding its total gold inventory to 130,730 ounces.
The freshly minted JORC-compliant mineral resource estimate now stands at a healthy two million tonnes pulling a solid average grade of 1.99 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, calculated using a 0.5g/t gold lower cut-off grade.
Historically, this highly prospective area was mined as a shallow open pit by previous operators back in the early 1990s, leaving a series of unmined lodes that are now finally being tackled with modern exploration techniques.
Resource breakdown
The company's upgraded inventory features a primary in-situ component of 1.9 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.03g/t gold, comprising a mix of indicated and inferred categories, yielding 128,500 ounces of gold.
The in-ground base has been further boosted by a surface stockpile holding 67,700 tonnes grading 0.99g/t gold for 2,150 ounces of gold. This was calculated without applying a cut-off grade to optimise the eventual economic extraction parameters.
Drilling program success
The uplift in resources at Johnson Range resulted from a recently completed 48-hole reverse circulation drilling program totalling 4,344 metres. The company says the campaign successfully validated previous resource definitions and has improved its confidence in the geology across the asset.
Independent validation by the geological consultancy Widenbar and Associates verified the updated block model, which integrated historical drilling data with the latest results.
Forrestania Resources chairman David Geraghty said: "The mineral resource update points to a continued growth profile for Johnson Range and supports our broader strategy of building scale across the Dimer Hub, leveraging the extensive regional infrastructure, which provides many processing options for a future mining operation."
Mineralisation styles
Mineralisation at the deposit occurs across three primary styles, including shallow lateritic gold near surface, enriched supergene zones and deeper hydrothermal gold linked to quartz veining and structural controls.
Johnson Range is 170 kilometres north of Southern Cross and fits neatly into the company's broader operation at its Mt Dimer Hub. This infrastructure-rich region sits near the historical Evanston Mine and could provide the gold junior with multiple processing pathways for any future mining operation.
Regional footprint
Beyond Johnson Range, Forrestania now commands an impressive regional footprint across several of Western Australia's most prolific structural greenstone belts.
The hefty pipeline includes its namesake Forrestania project, which sits directly adjacent to the historical million-ounce Bounty gold mine. Further north, the developer holds highly prospective ground near Coolgardie and Menzies, giving the company active commercial exposure to gold and strategic base metals within proven mineralised corridors across the Eastern Goldfields.
Next steps
Now that the upgraded gold model has been locked in, the company says it plans to pivot directly into the project's next phase of evaluation, including targeted down-dip diamond drilling to secure fresh core for metallurgical test work.
Forrestania says the mineralisation remains wide open at depth, leaving plenty of blue-sky upside still on the table at Johnson Range. At the same time, the company is kicking off conceptual mining studies to map out potential open-pit economics, while an already-approved 100-hole drill campaign stands ready to test for further strike extensions across the broader tenure.
Corporate strategy
Forrestania appears to be accelerating its corporate strategy, aggressively expanding high-grade resources through acquisitions and exploration drilling, with one aim in mind: to feed its nearby and soon-to-be-completed Lake Johnston processing facility. The company is transforming the historic Lake Johnston nickel plant into a sizeable gold carbon-in-leach processing hub, with plans to crank throughput up to 3.2 million tonnes per annum once the refurbishment is complete.
As the company rolls out systematic testing across its regional hubs, it looks set to lock in the scale needed for a serious mining operation.
As a high-octane story, Forrestania is likely being watched closely by the smart money as it fast-tracks the leap from drill rigs to production.
