Penny Gold Mine
Location & History
The Penny Gold Mine is located approximately 150km south-east of Ramelius’ Mt Magnet mining and processing operations and approximately 550km north-east of Perth in Western Australia.
The Penny West deposit was discovered in 1990 and mined as a high grade open pit in 1990/91 producing approximately 154,000t @ 18.0g/t Au for 89,000oz. Minor exploration was conducted over following years by a number of companies until Spectrum Metals discovered the Penny North lode zone in March 2019.
Ramelius acquired the project in 2020 via an off-market takeover offer of Spectrum Metals Limited.
The deposit is located on granted mining leases M57/180 & M57/196.
Geology & Mineralisation
Gold mineralisation is hosted within large, quartz-sulphide lode veins occurring within a steeply dipping greenstone stratigraphy dominated by mafic and ultramafic units and with minor felsic and granitoid intrusive units. The Penny West & North lodes occur at or proximal to a felsic schist–mafic amphibolite contact and slightly cross-cut stratigraphy. The lodes are typically 2-6m thick, dip east at 50°- 65° and both have strike and dip extents of 350m and 250m respectively. Gold mineralisation is nuggety and closely correlates with sulphide rich zones of pyrrhotite, pyrite, galena, sphalerite and minor chalcopyrite.
Quartz – sulphide Penny North lode intercept in diamond hole SPWDD001
Mineral Resource and Ore Reserve
The latest Mineral Resource (including ROM & LG stocks) stood at 320,000t @21 g/t for 220,000 oz (Refer 2 September 2024 ASX Release).
The latest Ore Reserve stood at 400,000t @14 g/t for 180,000 oz (Refer 2 September 2024 ASX Release).
The Penny North underground design and mining method consists of conventional small-scale mechanised development and stoping methods. Conventional longhole drilling and blasting of up-hole bench stopes is underway, in combination with in-situ pillars and/or cement rock fill stope support.
Open pit and underground ore is being hauled along existing access roads to the Mt Magnet processing plant. Penny ore is free milling with high gold recoveries being achieved.
