JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Tanami Gold has successfully trialled a new mining method at the company’s Coyote gold mine, in Western Australia.

The new method employs similar technology to that previously used in the deep high-grade ore-bodies in South Africa’s Witwatersrand district, with production trials resulting in stope widths of around 0,3 m to 0,6 m.

Tanami stated that despite it being early stages, the new method was expected to increase ore recovery, lower mining costs, and reduce dilution with grades, which in some areas were expected to be over 30 g/t gold.

“The trial has been undertaken in the upper levels of the high-grade Gonzales ore-body, where the semi-oxidised nature of the surrounding ground rock may have caused excessive dilution if conventional mining techniques had been used,” said MD and CEO Graeme Sloan.

Tanami would now give the go-ahead for full production at the operation, using this technique.

The Coyote gold mine was currently being developed to allow long-hole mining techniques to be used, however, given the success of the trial of the new mining method, the company now had the option to employ the new technique, thereby decreasing dilution and mining costs.

Work would continue to determine the most appropriate manner in which to mine the Gonzales lode.