Forrestania British Hill gold resource growth: pit design and planning notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Forrestania Resources has intersected 16m at 5.77g/t gold at its British Hill project in Western Australia, contributing to a 35 per cent increase in the mineral resource to 286,300 ounces. The latest campaign comprised 19 reverse circulation holes totalling 4246m, targeting extensions of known mineralisation along strike and at depth. For mine planners and geotechs, the thicker, high-grade intercepts from RC drilling suggest potential for a more continuous, near-surface orebody, improving open-pit optimisation and geotechnical design options.
Technical Brief
- RC programme used 19 holes for 4246m total, implying average hole depth ~220m.
- Hole spacing and orientation likely targeted along-strike continuity, supporting future resource classification upgrades.
- RC drilling choice suggests focus on cost-effective coverage rather than detailed structural logging from core.
- Increased ounces at British Hill can materially change pit shell geometry and strip ratio assumptions.
- Additional mineralisation down-dip opens potential for staged pushbacks and deferred waste pre-strip.
- Thicker mineralised zones reduce sensitivity to dilution assumptions in open-pit grade control models.
- Higher contained metal inventory improves optionality for integrating British Hill into regional processing hubs.
- For similar Archaean lode systems in WA, such step-change resource updates often precede scoping-level pit designs.
Our Take
Forrestania Resources’ recent push to restart the Edna May processing facility in Western Australia positions British Hill’s growing gold inventory as potential near‑term feed, especially when viewed alongside the ore purchase agreement for Mt Fisher material.
The 35 per cent resource increase at the British Hill project comes as Forrestania is also consolidating control of Zenith Minerals, suggesting the company is building both resource scale and corporate optionality across its Western Australia gold portfolio.
Within our database of 1256 Mining stories, Forrestania appears unusually active for a junior gold player, featuring across multiple recent items that combine project drilling, plant refurbishment and corporate transactions rather than single‑track project advancement.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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