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DIGGERS & DEALERS

Yandal has best of both worlds

by Michael Washbourne

andal Resources Ltd managing director Lorry Hughes would Hughes said his team was “running around feverishly” at the
Ylove nothing more than for his company to be in production prospect of making a key exploration breakthrough at Gordons
right now given the price of gold continues to trade at historic levels. Dam, but reiterated the company would be ticking all the
However, while the aspiring miner does have some near-term necessary boxes along the way.
production opportunities on the horizon, Hughes is also licking “We want to ensure that we’re doing the prospect justice,” he said.
his lips at the prospect of making a major new gold discovery just “We’ll be looking to throw appropriate dollars at this prospect, but
outside of Kalgoorlie. we don’t want to detract from the other prospects in our portfolio
In what proved to be a busy finish to the financial year, Yandal as well.”
indicated it was on the cusp of a “significant” discovery at Since listing in late 2008, Yandal’s focus has primarily been
Gordons Dam, one of the main prospects at its Gordons project, dedicated to the Flushing Meadows project, about 70km east of
about 20km from Northern Star Resources Ltd’s Kanonwa Belle Wiluna. If all goes to plan, this is likely to become the company’s
operation. first production asset.
Yandal’s confidence came on the back of a string of promising Yandal recently concluded a 5,000m RC drilling programme at
RC drilling results which included hits of 1m @ 17.01 g/t gold Flushing Meadows, returning more encouraging intercepts such
within 11m @ 1.89 g/t from 97m and 4m @ 9.48 g/t from 100m. as 11m @ 3.35 g/t gold from 50m (including 1m @ 16.99 g/t) and
“Most of those holes have come back with pretty much double- 5m @ 6.38 g/t from 72m (including 1m @ 17.6 g/t), ahead of a
digit grades or very anomalous mineralisation related to a planned resource upgrade later this quarter.
porphyry,” Hughes told GMJ. “That will allow us, in line with our geotechnical study, to finalise
“All the hits we’ve received to date are completely open at depth the pit design, finalise optimisation studies and also look to design
below 100m, and continuing we hope, so this is very exciting for the mine and seek approvals from the appropriate authorities,”
the future growth of that prospect.” Hughes said.
At the time of print, Yandal was in the final stages of a RC drilling “We hope to be able to complete most of those activities easily
programme targeting the oxide paleochannel it had previously this year and then essentially be knocking on the door of the
discovered at Gordons. The company was then planning to regulator, seeking our approval, into the first quarter of next year.
transition into some deeper diamond drilling to reaffirm its “We’d love to be in production now. The producers are making
understanding of the mineralised structure at hand. good profits at the moment and so we’re working as fast as we
can to get that approval, but there’s a defined approvals process
– you can’t just turn up and start digging – so we need to go
through those processes.”
Yandal was also raising circa $3.34 million via a pro-rata non-
renounceable rights issue at the time of print, with funds to be
used primarily on exploration at Gordons and the Mt McClure
project, about 20km from the mothballed Bronzewing processing
plant.
Describing Mt McClure as “a bit of a sleeper” in the company’s
portfolio, Hughes is keen to resume work at the historic mine –
which last produced gold in 2012 – as soon as possible. Haul
roads still exist between the project and Bronzewing, which is now
owned by Northern Star, one of Yandal’s major shareholders.
“We think there’s huge resource potential. We’ve been planning
to attack those deposits and that mineralisation there once
we’ve completed our major programmes at Flushing Meadows,”
Hughes said.
“There has been a lot of interest in that deposit. We’ve actually
recently applied for three new mining licences over the known
mineralisation. The next stage is to carry out enough work to
confirm initial resources.”
Yandal believes it is on the cusp of a major discovery at Gordons Dam

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