A Significant Deposit of Base Load Gold
Linden Gold acquired the Second Fortune Gold Project in 2020 and moved quickly to bring the project back into production, achieving its first gold pour within seven months, in April 2021. Ore is processed at St Barbara Ltd’s Gwalia processing facility under a toll milling / ore purchase arrangement.
As part of its growth strategy, Linden Gold is working to maximise value within its assets by focusing on high grading its underground operations. The Company is undertaking in-mine and regional exploration including: underground diamond drilling to improve confidence in the life of mine plan; surface reverse circulation (RC) drilling to test regional prospects; and costeaning (trenching) to evaluate drill targets near high-grade intercepts, artisanal mine shafts and visible quartz outcroppings.
Strong opportunities have been identified to supplement the project base load with several potential shallow, high-grade open pits. These are cut-backs of the historic +13g/t Second Fortune, Linden Star, Cuckoo Hawk Airstrip and Marloo pits.
Standout Drill Results
To date, drilling at the Linden Star, Cuckoo Hawk and Marloo Prospects have returned exciting assay results.
Little-to-no systematic drilling on land package despite abundance of historical workings, high-grade historic intercepts, visible quartz outcroppings and being situated along trend to some of WA’s largest underground gold mines – all on Mining Leases.
Alisa
4.0m @ 5.3g/t (21gm) from 15m
11.0m @ 7.0g/t (77gm) from 25m
Forgotten
4.0m @ 2.5g/t (10gm) from 16m
6.0m @ 3.8g/t (23gm) from 12m
8.0m @ 2.9g/t (23gm) from 24m
8.0m @ 2.8g/t (22gm) from 32m
Marloo
2.0m @ 4.4g/t (9gm) from 34m
2.0m @ 13.3g/t (27gm) from 26m
1.0m @ 8.0g/t (8gm) from 55m
May Prince
1.0m @ 12.4g/t (12gm) from 24m
Linden Giant
4.0m @ 22.7g/t (91gm) from 16m
1.0m @ 10.4g/t (10gm) from 32m
2.0m @ 5.7g/t (11gm) from 39m
Linden Star
5.0m @ 4.0g/t (20gm) from 15m
2.0m @ 8.0g/t (16gm) from 64m
1.0m @ 97.4g/t (97gm) from 23m
Alawa
2.0m @ 29.5g/t (59gm) from 66m
1.0m @ 8.2g/t (8gm) from 58m
2.0m @ 8.2g/t (16gm) from 78m
Cuckoo Hawk
8.0m @ 9.5g/t (76gm) from 28m
2.0m @ 11.3g/t (22gm) from 38m
Strategic Landholding in WA's Prolific Gold Belt
The Second Fortune Gold Project is part of a tenement package covering an area of approximately 34km². Its location, 220km northeast of Kalgoorlie and 109km south of Laverton, sits within the prolific eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
The underground mine is situated at the southern end of the richly endowed Laverton Tectonic Zone, which hosts multiple world class gold deposits including Wallaby, Granny Smith, Red October and Sunrise Dam.
Onsite infrastructure includes a 70-person camp, power station, workshop, tech office and private airstrip within 100m.
Timeline
1941 – 2017 : Site History
Mining, infrastructure upgrades and stage 1 development
The area was originally mined between 1941 and 1988 from a small open pit, as well as underground via shaft and handheld methods. Anova Metals Ltd acquired the project in 2017 and completed infrastructure upgrades and stage 1 of underground mechanised mine development. Following stage 1 completion, the mine was put into care and maintenance.
2020 – 2021: Mine acquisition, optimisation and restoration
Targeting reduced volumes, improved grades and increased margins
Acquiring the Second Fortune Gold Mine in August 2020, Linden rapidly completed the necessary building and commissioning works in 7 months to bring the project back into production by April 2021.
Growth and optimisation achievements included:
- Production of 170kt Au @ 3.6g/t for 20koz since inception in April 2021 (includes low-grade parcels in ramp-up months)
- Testing at depth and along strike – deepest hole of 370m (assays pending)
- Reduce decline to 4.0mW x 4.0mH – 20% reduction in decline material moved
- Reduce ore drive to 2.5mW x 3.7mH – 28% reduction in ore drive material moved
- Optimised drill and blast to reduce stope dilution (increased grade)
- Changing mining fleet to align with optimised mining dimensions
- +20m extension to southern ore drive strike = +2 extra stopes per level
2021 – Present : Exploration
Focus on resource growth with expanded drill programs
In October 2021, Linden Gold conducted a 1,000m diamond drill program focused on grade control. A second 2,000m diamond drill program was completed in February 2022 to identify extensions to the resource at depth and along the strike. Assay results are pending with diamond drill programs continuing.
Next Steps at Second Fortune
- Focus on growth and optimisation
- Significant drill program post IPO
- Targeting mine life extension, resource definition and regional exploration
Second Fortune represents an exceptional opportunity to delineate several shallow, high-grade open pits across the landholding. Mineralisation remains open at depth with little-to-no drilling on land despite an abundance of historical workings, visible quartz outcroppings and showing similarities to some of WA’s largest underground mines.
Expanded surface RC and underground diamond drilling program is already underway targeting shallow, high-grade historical intercepts at regional prospects.
Future funding will enable continuous improvement of Second Fortune towards a sustainable run-rate of 15 kt/m, underpinned by an extensive drill program targeting overall expansion of the Mineral Resource.
Second Fortune
High grade narrow vein underground mine currently in production with plenty of regional exploration prospects.
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