The measured and indicated resource now totals 45.7 million tonnes grading 4.93 grams gold per tonne, or 7.2 million oz. The estimate was calculated using a cutoff of 350 cm-gram gold per tonne (thickness multiplied by grade).
Using the same cutoff, the inferred resource is estimated at 13.9 million tonnes grading 10.37 grams gold. The mineralization is 30-65 cm thick, and the resource calculation was made using grades diluted to a width of 1 metre.
The latest calculation entailed combining several gold-bearing areas into a single resource. Drilling indicates that areas 1 and 4, to the southwest, are continuous, and areas 2 and 3, along the same northwesterly trending corridor as area 1, constitute the same deposit.
Area 1, which has seen the most drilling, comprises 64% of the measured and indicated resource. A prefeasibility study of area 1 suggests a 24% internal rate of return could be garnered from a mine that produces 236,000 gold annually from 1.5 million tonnes.
Mineralization is in an ancient series of gold-bearing braided river channels, which cut the Kimberley reef. The deposit is found between two northwest-trending faults in an area of uplift. Mineralization is found at depths of 250-1,000 metres.
The company has drilled 120,000 metres of core (187 holes) in the past two years.
Southgold Exploration, a unit of Great Basin, holds options to 100% of the Burnstone project.
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