Brief History of U/G mining of NOA 2 to NOA 7/8 The Burnakura Project is comprised of 58.8 square kilometres of mining leases and prospecting licenses that covers a 12 kilometre long shear zone (Burnakura Shear Zone) with an associated mesothermal gold system.
Feeder lodes beneath NOA 2 were first mined in 2005-07 when nearly 35,000 ounces were produced at an average grade just above 7.2 gms per ton.
It then went on care and maintenance due to the financial collapse of 2007/8
ATW then acquired urnakura and began a drill program is to increase current resources, as identified in an ATW news release dated January 17, 2008, by drilling along the 1500 metre (m) strike length from the underground workings at NOA 2, north toward the NOA 7-8 open cut. Intercepts from previous drilling in the area include:
- 7 metres @ 17.3 grams per tonne (gpt) gold
- 3 metres @ 42.6 gpt gold
- 5 metres @ 9.11 gpt gold
Additional drilling will target a high grade zone beneath the New Alliance Pit, 3 kilometers south of NOA2, where previous drilling returned an intersection of 17.4 meters grading 19.7 gpt gold.
Since acquiring the Burnakura asset, ATW has been actively preparing to refurbish the plant and mill, in preparation to re-commence processing operations in the 2nd quarter of 2008. ATW has engaged consultants to identify potential improvements to the crusher and mill to improve plant efficiency. These options will be assessed and work will begin refurbishing the crusher and mill immediately.
While there are several areas at Burnakura that can potentially contribute to production, the underground workings along the NOA 2 decline will be brought to producing status in the shortest time frame.
Production numbers of the previous operators, from the NOA 2 underground workings, until the cessation of mining activities in December 2006, indicate the average grade of gold recovered was 7.1 gpt.
Engineering firms Ravensgate and Orelogy, of Perth, Australia, writers of the Company's 43-101 compliant technical report on Burnakura, have independently calculated a current measured and indicated resource at NOA 2 of 236,946 tonnes grading 8.28 gpt gold.
Upon completion of plant refurbishment, ATW plans to begin operating the mill at its daily capacity of approximately 450 tonnes per day, utilizing material from this resource. I