The new resource, audited by Pincock Allen & Holt, consists of underground and surface portions.
Underground measured and indicated resources are pegged at 3.5 million tonnes grading 5.9 grams gold and 302 grams silver per tonne, or 1.2 million contained ounces gold-equivalent. This estimate is based on a silver-to-gold ratio of a 65-to-1.
There is an additional, inferred resource of 4.5 million tonnes grading 6.1 grams gold and 298 grams silver, or 1.5 million oz. gold-equivalent.
Gammon based its underground estimate on a cutoff grade of 3 grams gold-equivalent, a gold price of US$300 per oz., and a silver price of US$4.61 per oz.
Measured and indicated resources in the surface portion stand at 2.4 million tonnes of 1.32 grams gold and 55 grams silver, or 168,000 oz. gold-equivalent. Some 1.1 million tonnes averaging 1.12 grams gold and 47 grams silver, or 66,000 oz. gold-equivalent, are in the inferred category. The surface resource employs a cutoff grade of 0.4 gram gold-equivalent.
The figures are based on 24,000 metres of diamond drilling and 9,700 metres of reverse-circulation drilling, or 179 holes in total.
So far, metallurgical tests by Kappes, Cassiday & Associates (KCA) have yielded average gold recoveries of 97% and 86% for silver via standard cyanide extraction techniques.
Gammon is driving 2.5 km worth of underground development ramps and 4-by-4.5-metre adits to allow for continued underground drilling on the high-grade zones. In addition, the company will carry out test mining and bulk sampling to obtain larger metallurgical samples.
Future drilling will test for additional shallow surface and underground deposits outside the area of ramp development.
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