Ora Banda Mining has announced a substantial increase in its gold inventory near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, with resources climbing and reserves more than doubling as the company prepares for the next phase of growth at Davyhurst.
Resource and Reserve Update
The company's latest update reveals total mineral resources have risen to 54.8 million tonnes at two grams per tonne (g/t) gold, equating to 3.57 million ounces. This represents an increase of 1.46 million ounces since July 1 last year.
The jump was primarily driven by a near tenfold increase at the Round Dam operation, where the open pit resource has expanded to 25.35 million tonnes at 1.6 g/t for 1.33 million ounces. The Waihi operation also performed strongly, with its combined open pit and underground resource more than doubling to 7.27 million tonnes at 2.1 g/t for 482,000 ounces.
Ora Banda's ore reserve has surged an astounding 136 percent to 7.84 million tonnes at 2.2 g/t gold for 555,000 ounces, underpinned by maiden reserves at Waihi underground and Round Dam. The new Waihi underground reserve totals 825,000 tonnes at 3.8 g/t for 101,000 ounces, including 254,000 tonnes at 5.0 g/t gold for 41,000 ounces from the Golden Pole lode. Round Dam has also delivered a maiden open-pit reserve of 3.67 million tonnes at 1.9 g/t for 223,000 ounces across five pits along a 3.6-kilometre strike, with both systems still open to further growth.
Growth Prospects
Additional upside may still be in the pipeline, as recent Round Dam drilling results are pending assays and have not yet been included in the current estimates. Ora Banda expects those results to feed into its annual resource and reserve update for Round Dam, Riverina and Sand King in the June quarter, ahead of a maiden resource estimate for Little Gem in the first half of FY27.
The company has adopted an aspirational growth outlook called "Drive to 300," which is an internally funded organic growth pathway. This three-year ambition aims to double production and build Australia's next 300,000-ounce-per-year gold producer. Ora Banda Mining managing director Luke Creagh said, "The Drive to 300 is the exciting next phase for Ora Banda, building on earlier success with the achievement of Drive to 100 and Drive to 150. This doubling of production is currently expected to be capable of being internally funded and has the potential to add material value and position Ora Banda as a long-term sustainable gold business."
Infrastructure and Funding
Backing its recently inflated gold inventory, Ora Banda has approved a new standalone three-million-tonne-per-annum processing plant at Davyhurst for $375 million and development of its third underground mine at Waihi under its Drive to 300 growth plan. The company finished March with $232 million in cash and has upsized its revolving credit facility to $200 million, giving it pro forma liquidity of $432 million to help fund the expansion.
With more ounces now defined and the build-out road map expanding, Ora Banda is starting to look like a company with genuine scale options rather than just potential. If the next batch of drilling keeps landing similar results, today's inventory expansion may not be the end of the story.
