Extraordinarily high gold grades – including one intersection of nearly 7 kg/t – have been announced from new drilling at a the producing Wattle Dam gold mine in Western Australia wholly owned and operated by Ramelius Resources. The results include gold grades of 6.8 kg/t (217 oz) and 3.7 kg/t (118 oz) as well as intersections of several hundred grams per tonne.

The intersections were encountered during resource extension drilling by Ramelius at the Wattle Dam open pit, 25 km west of Kambalda and within the company’s Spargoville Belt regional project area. “These are extraordinary gold grades,” Ramelius’ Managing Director, Joe Houldsworth, said. “There is little doubt they are amongst the highest ever recorded in Australia’s rich and long gold exploration history. We have now confirmed that Wattle Dam has the potential to be a high grade underground mine and further drilling to extend this super high grade gold zone will commence in the near future.”

Ramelius Chairman, Robert Kennedy, said the super high grade intersections significantly enhanced the rate at which the Company could now entrench its position as an established gold producer, after commencing first production last year. “These emerging grades point to Wattle Dam being a highly profitable operation.” He pointed to “future expansion of the mine, supported by further exploration along the Spargoville Belt at our range of highly prospective locations exhibiting similar profiles to Wattle Dam.”

The results announced on August 24 are from the first assays of visible gold intercepts reported last month by Ramelius from Reverse Circulation drilling undertaken to evaluate a further cutback and underground mining potential at Wattle Dam. The best intercepts include:

• WDRC 289 – 16 metres @ 482 g/t Au (uncut) from 123 m down hole depth – including 1 m @ 6770 g/t Au
• WDRC 290 – 9 m @ 454 g/t Au (uncut) from 132 m down hole depth – including 1 m @ 3687 g/t Au.

Houldsworth said the strike length of super high grade mineralisation at Wattle Dam now exceeded 60 m from a depth of 95 m and remained open at depth. A new diamond drilling program has now been scheduled to commence early next month to test down plunge and down dip of the mine’s existing mineralisation. Ramelius has also appointed consultants to progress Wattle Dam’s mine development and to calculate resource and reserve estimates.