During the first three years of the subject reporting period, exploration carried out by Dominion Mining as Gawler Project sole owner and operator was concentrated in and around the Challenger gold mine, to assist in defining ore reserves within...
During the first three years of the subject reporting period, exploration carried out by Dominion Mining as Gawler Project sole owner and operator was concentrated in and around the Challenger gold mine, to assist in defining ore reserves within the three known orebodies, and to explore for any other mineralised zones with the aim of prolonging the mine's life. In total 794 exploratory drillholes were completed, either at the mine or at nearby prospects. These variously comprised 175 surface - spudded RAB holes for a total penetration of 8146 m, 9 surface - spudded diamond holes for 28,325.06 m, 187 underground diamond holes for 23,354.08 m, and 423 underground sludge (open hole percussion) holes for 8,987.75 m. Deep drilling done at Challenger, initially from the floor of the open pit and then from galleries developed within the newly commissioned underground mine development, soon extended the mapped reserves limits to 720 m below surface, while the M1 orebody was shown to continue for at least 1600 m down plunge, with its full extent still remaining open at depth. By the end of 2007, demonstrated in-place gold resources at Challenger had increased to over 1 million ounces for the first time in the mine's five-year history (with an overall hike of 191% in the 2007 year). Dominion Mining therefore concluded that the prospect's exploration potential still appeared such that further increases to the gold resource could confidently be anticipated, which augured well for forecasting an extended mine life of at least five years, or perhaps even 10 years with further successful exploration. During the succeeding two years of the subject reporting period, Dominion Mining has continued to carry out similar evaluation drilling within or near the Challenger mine, completing another 199 drillholes plus numerous drill sample assays for a cost of ~ $16.7 million. The latest drilling comprised 29 surface - spudded RC holes for a total penetration of 3570 m, 34 surface - spudded diamond holes for 17,726.95 m, 80 underground diamond holes for 8,515.76 m, and 56 underground sludge (open hole percussion) holes for 1,161.45 m. The results have demonstrated continuity of high grade gold mineralisation within the M1 and M2 orebodies, and have upgraded the reserves of the M3 ore shoot sufficiently to allow mining to start there in the second half of 2009. In consequence, the company has recently decided to expand its ore processing plant throughput capacity to allow production of ~130,000 ounces of gold per annum. The decision follows the recent announcement of a 26% increase in the gold resource inventory to 1,461,140 ounces (including 719,590 ounces that are additional to reserves). This equates to $19.00 per ounce of exploration discovery costs, and takes into account the resource depletion relative to the current annual gold production of 98,755 ounces. In the second half of the subject reporting period, Dominion Mining entered into four 'strata-title' joint ventures with separate companies to facilitate extensive regional mineral exploration within its Gawler Project Central Tenements Area. Initial geochemical survey, drilling and other activities undertaken by some of the joint ventures, up until June 2009, have entailed expenditures approaching $1 million. The data acquired so far in these various programmes is now being released by Dominion Mining and PIRSA, with the consent of the companies involved, in support of the partial relinquishment process.
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