Significant Increase in Mineral Resources for Martha
OceanaGold Reports Significant Increase in Mineral
Resources for the Martha Project at Waihi
9
August 2018
MEDIA RELEASE
(MELBOURNE) OceanaGold Corporation (TSX: OGC) (ASX: OGC) (the “Company”) is pleased to announce an updated Mineral Resource estimate for the Martha Project (the “Project”) at the Company’s Waihi gold mine in New Zealand.
Highlights
• Increased total Indicated Resource by 700% to 0.76Mt @ 5.8 g/t Au for 140,000 ounces of gold.
• Increased total Inferred Resource by 250% to 2.49Mt @ 4.3 g/t Au for 339,000 ounces of gold.
• Significantly expanded the Martha Project exploration target.
Mick Wilkes, President and CEO of
OceanaGold said, “I am very pleased to announce this
increase to the mineral resource estimate for Waihi. With
only 30% of the planned drill metres completed, we are
excited about the future and remain optimistic with respect
to the ultimate size of the Martha resource.
He added, “The results to date have been much better than we expected and therefore the exploration target that is being tested through drilling has been revised and expanded.”
“The Waihi Mine is an important part of the town of Waihi, directly employing 350 people and contributing approximately 40% of the local economy. Increasing the mine life of the operation allows us to continue delivering these socioeconomic benefits and provides greater certainty to the town’s residents and local and regional businesses we are proud to be in partnership with.”
Since August 2017 approximately 16,200 metres of drilling has been completed at the Martha Underground from two underground drill drives and represents approximately 30% of the planned exploration drill metres to the end of December 2019 and that required to adequately test the Martha Underground exploration target. Drilling has focussed on identifying and defining mineralisation along sections of the Martha, Royal and Empire veins which, in combination with the Edward vein, have in total a combined strike length of approximately 3.2 kilometres and a maximum dip extent of approximately 500 metres (Figure 1 and 2).
As exploration has progressed the Company has identified mineralised veins that sit outside the initial exploration target. As a result, and following the incorporation of further data, including that from recent drilling, the exploration target has been revised and is now outlined as a potential volume of between 5 million and 8 million tonnes at a grade of between 4.0 g/t and 6.0 g/t gold for approximately 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 ounces of gold, inclusive of the Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources detailed above. Insufficient exploration work has been conducted to date to define a mineral resource of this magnitude and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the delineation of additional mineral resources. The exploration target is conceptual in nature and is based on the assessment of surface and underground drilling data collected by the Company as well as historical and archived geological and mining data from over a century of mining activity at Waihi. If ongoing exploration and consenting is successful, this could extend underground mining at Waihi.
With the success of the drill program to date, the Company will increase the number of diamond drills from the current four up to six to accelerate the testing of the Martha, Empire, Royal and Edward veins and the numerous linking splays that make up the Martha vein system and revised exploration target. Over the coming months the Company will continue to provide an update on exploration activities at Waihi.
While the bulk of the exploration drilling is taking place at Martha, the Company will also continue to drill and explore the highly prospective WKP target some 10km north of Waihi.
All drill data in relation to the Waihi Project can be found on the Company’s website at http://www.oceanagold.com/investor-centre/filings/. In line with ASX listing requirements, JORC Code Table 1 for Waihi Exploration Results, and Resources and Reserves estimates are appended to this release and available on OceanaGold’s website at www.oceanagold.com.
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