Gold miner Regis Resources on Monday announced it would develop two new underground mines that are forecast to deliver between 100 000 oz/y and 120 000 oz/y from 2027.
Developing the Garden Well Main and Rosemont Stage 3 mines would boost the Duketon gold project, in Western Australia, and formed part of the company’s underground growth strategy, said MD and CEO Jim Beyer.
“The development decision for these value accretive underground mines is another important milestone as Regis progresses on delivering into its underground growth strategy,” he said.
With the Garden Well Main and Rosemont Stage 3 underground mines, Regis will be operating three independent underground mining areas.
“Given the way that Duketon orebodies have behaved historically and based on current exploration results, we are confident in our ability to continue to expand our underground mining footprint.
Beyer stressed that Regis was well on the way to operating four to five underground mines at Duketon to deliver sustainable production of 200 000 oz/y to 250 000 oz/y of gold.
“We continue to demonstrate the growth potential of our underground mines,” he said.
Between declaring a maiden underground reserve for Rosemont in 2019 and the end of the calendar year 2022, the company has completed targeted exploration and resource definition drilling programmes that have successfully expanded the Duketon underground reserves by nearly 170%, while also producing 151 000 oz of gold from the underground mines.
The reserves contained in the two new projects have contributed further growth.
Garden Well Main, which is a new underground mining area, has an inventory of 3.2-million tonnes at 2.8 g/t gold for 295 000 oz contained gold, including probable ore reserves of 1.2-million tonnes at 2.4 g/t for 91 000 oz.
Rosemont Stage 3 is an underground extension and has a mining inventory of 1.7-million tonnes at 2.8 g/t for 157 000 oz contained gold, including a probable ore reserve of 490 000 t at 2.6 g/t for 41 000 oz.
Regis will spend between A$120-million and A$150-million in capital to build the two new mines, with development starting immediately. First ore from stopes is scheduled in the first quarter of the 2026 financial year.