Rox Resources nears production stoping at Youanmi: design and scheduling notes for engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Rox Resources is preparing to start production stoping at the Youanmi underground gold mine in Western Australia, with development now advanced beyond the original definitive feasibility study (DFS) mine plan. High‑grade infill drilling at the United North lode is targeting tighter orebody definition and greater confidence in stope design and ore delivery scheduling ahead of first stopes. For geotechnical and planning teams, the extended development relative to the DFS suggests scope for revised mine designs, updated ground support regimes and potentially higher early production flexibility.
Technical Brief
- Underground development now extends into additional levels and strike length beyond the DFS-defined stoping blocks.
- Infill drilling at United North is explicitly targeting stope-scale geometry for tighter dilution control.
- High-grade intercepts are being prioritised for early stopes to de-risk cashflow and ventilation loading.
- Extended development provides extra access drives, improving secondary egress options and emergency response routing.
- Additional drilling data allow refinement of ground support patterns and cable bolt layouts in initial stopes.
- Ore delivery certainty from United North supports more stable mill feed, reducing pressure for risky stope sequencing.
- Safety focus is on reducing unplanned overbreak and exposure time in stopes through better-defined ore–waste contacts.
- Similar brownfields underground restarts can use early over-development to build in redundancy and safer access.
Our Take
Recent coverage of Rox Resources shows Youanmi in Western Australia moving from drilling success at United North (high-grade intercepts reported in July 2026) to schedule outperformance on underground development in August 2026, signalling a relatively de-risked transition into production stoping compared with many gold projects in our database.
The installation of Glencore Technology’s Albion Process circuit at the Youanmi Gold Mine, highlighted in an earlier item, means early stoping will feed into a flowsheet already optimised for refractory and semi-refractory ore, which can materially improve payable recovery and project economics versus conventional CIL-only plants seen in other Australian gold operations.
The binding Native Title Mining Agreement with the Badimia Barna claimant, reported in August 2026, gives Rox Resources a clearer tenure pathway than several other Western Australian gold projects in our coverage, reducing the risk of late-stage permitting or access delays as underground stoping ramps up.
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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