Barton Gold Holdings Ltd (ASX:BGD) has boosted its mineral resource estimate (MRE) for the Tunkillia gold project in South Australia to 1.6 million ounces (Moz) of gold (62.9 million tonnes at 0.80 grams per tonne), and 3.1Moz silver (34.5Mt at 2.80 g/t Ag).

This increase of approximately 120,000 ounces was registered across both deposits, Area 223 and Area 51, with new drilling extending the former’s block model beyond Barton’s initial scoping study (ISS) optimised pit floor.

The extensions at Area 223 sit underneath the higher-grade ‘Starter Pit’ which was modelled during the ISS, and which is expected to yield more than 180,000 ounces of gold at a cash cost of less than A$1,250 per ounce from around 5Mt of feed.

Managing director Alexander Scanlon said the drilling marked an important development for Barton: “Further drilling and optimisation analyses confirm additional mineralisation extending beyond previous block models, Mineral Resources Estimates and pit optimisations.”

“We are also pleased to declare a 3.1Moz silver JORC Resource as a subset of the 1.6Moz gold Resource,” he continued.

“Combined with the material efficiencies and power savings we are targeting in our comminution modelling, we anticipate Tunkillia’s forthcoming Optimised Scoping Study will yield much improved economics.”

BGD has been trading at 29 cents this Tuesday morning.

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