Adelaide, Mar 16, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australia has a new gold miner, with former explorer, Ramelius Resources Limited (ASX: RMS) announcing today the start to open-pit mining of its Wattle Dam 7800N Gold deposit in Western Australia.
The conversion from explorer to miner has taken Ramelius just three years following its listing on the ASX on 31 March, 2003.
While the mine life of Wattle Dam will be short - with around 13,500 ounces expected to be produced over the next 4-5 months - the operation will deliver gross revenue of up to A$10 million based on the current gold price of approximately A$750 per ounce.
"This is a milestone for the Company as many gold explorers, particularly at the junior scale, never evolve to an actual mining operation," Ramelius' Managing Director, Mr Joe Houldsworth, said today.
"Critically, the cash flow will allow Ramelius to intensify and self fund our medium term exploration strategy for our gold, nickel and base metals assets in the broader highly prospective Spargoville province," Mr Houldsworth said.
"We are highly confident in the further potential of our tenements around Wattle Dam, reinforced by the relative rapidity to which we have explored, drilled out and now brought into operation, Australia's newest gold mine."
Located 25 kilometres west of Kambalda in the eastern goldfields, ore from Wattle Dam will be campaigned in 30,000 tonne parcels in Coolgardie at the Greenfield's Gold Treatment Plant operated by Higginsville Mining Pty Ltd.
The deposit contains a resource of 180,000 tonnes at 3.6 g/t gold of which 120,000 tonnes at 4.0 g/t gold is classified as Indicated and 60,000 tonnes at 2.9 g/t gold as Inferred.
The current mining plan provides for around 70,000 tonnes at 6 g/t gold, equating to approximately 13,500 oz of produced gold, to be mined, plus about 1.1 million tonnes of waste.
The mining and haulage contract has been awarded to Kalgoorlie-based Barcon Logistics Pty Ltd.
The deposit is located within Ramelius' major tenement holdings of 280 square kilometres of highly prospective but under-explored ground within the Spargoville Belt.
The Company has identified multiple targets on more than 30 kilometres of strike length, on trend with recent discoveries of gold and nickel.
Contact
Joe Houldsworth
Ramelius Resources Limited
TEL: +61 8 9250 6644
Kevin Skinner
Senior Consultant
FIELD PUBLIC RELATIONS
231 South Road
MILE END SA 5031
Tel: (08) 8234 9555
Fax: (08) 8234 9566
Mob: 0414 822 631
kevin@fieldpr.com.au
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