Ramelius readies for WA mine restart

A Western Australian gold mine has yielded yet another super high-grade gold...

  A Western Australian gold mine has yielded yet another super high-grade gold intercept, just one month before the resumption of open-pit cutback operations designed to lead into full-scale underground mining from mid-year.The bumper intercept by Ramelius Resources at its Wattle Dam mine near Coolgardie included one metre at 902 g/t gold.The intercept, part of a diamond drilling program commenced at Wattle Dam in the Eastern Goldfields in February this year, compliments many other elevated gold hits at Wattle Dam over the past two months.The lead intercepts have included 1m @ 902 g/t, 2m @ 561 g/t gold, 2m @ 56 g/t gold, 3m @ 23 g/t gold, and 4m @ 21 g/t gold.Ramelius’ Managing Director Joe Houldsworth said the latest high-grade result further validated the company’s decision to proceed with a maiden underground mining operation at Wattle Dam.“We have conservatively predicted total mine production will exceed 70,000 ounces of gold during 2008-09,” Mr Houldsworth said. “The latest high-grade hit is part of a very significant intercept of 2m @ 452 g/t gold, returned from an appraisal drill hole at only 208m depth and up-dip of an intercept of 3m at 23.2 g/t gold.” “This latest intercept continues an extremely exciting picture of a high-grade resource which is continuing at depth,” he said.Three of these latest intercepts are located outside the current resource and therefore are not incorporated within the existing Wattle Dam mine plan, which Ramelius said will be reviewed once all results are received from the completed RC and diamond drilling programs.“As high-grade intersections continue to emerge, we expect the underground mine plan to evolve, as ongoing drilling continues to delineate the plunging extension of the mine’s high-grade gold zones,” Mr Houldsworth said.Ramelius has to date produced more than one tonne of pure gold since it commenced open-pit mining and milling at Wattle Dam in March 2006.