Meeka Metals Ltd. has commenced decline development at the Fairway portal, establishing its second underground mine, Turnberry, at its Murchison gold project in Western Australia.
The operational achievement follows the completion of surface infrastructure and portal establishment in September.
Located approximately 20 kilometres from the central processing plant, the Fairway decline will access an initial Probable Ore Reserve of 620,000 tonnes at 2.5 grams per tonne of gold for 50,000 ounces.
First ore extraction from the underground operation is slated for January 2027, when it will be trucked directly to the processing facility to complement production from the existing Andy Well underground mine.
The establishment of a second underground ore source forms part of Meeka’s operational plan to scale up production while de-risking processing throughput by reducing reliance on a single mining area.
“Bringing our second, high-grade underground mine online continues to de-risk the business, adding another ore source for the processing plant, lifting production and further reducing our reliance on any single production area, said Meeka’s CEO Tim Davidson.
Davidson added that recent deeper drilling demonstrates mineralisation remains open at depth.
Drill intercepts returned earlier this year beneath the defined reserve highlighted significant extensions, including 52.3 metres at 3g/t gold and 18 metres at 3 g/t gold.
Turnberry’s total underground mineral resource currently stands at 360,000 ounces grading 3.9 g/t gold.
Over the coming months, underground drill platforms will be established off the advancing Fairway decline to conduct targeted extensional drilling.
The campaign aims to convert deep mineralisation into additional ore reserves, potentially expanding the overall resource footprint and extending the mine life of the Murchison operation.
