Regis opens new decline at Duketon gold project in Australia

Australia’s Regis Resources (ASX: RRL) on Friday announced the official opening of the Balkau decline at its Garden Well South underground mine in Western Australia.

Garden Well South represents an underground extension of the Garden Well open-pit mine, a key production source at Regis’ Duketon gold project located in the Goldfields region.

The Balkau decline provides access to the second underground operation at Garden Well South, which commenced commercial production during May 2023. This is part of the mineralized system that extends for at least 1 km underneath the existing Garden Well open pits that resulted from the original discovery, Regis said.

The original Garden Well deposit was discovered by an exploration team led by Jens Balkau. Jens was one of the first and longest serving employees of Regis, joining in January 2006 as the general manager of exploration, and remaining in that role until February 2016, when he retired from full time work. He remained a consultant to Regis before he passed away from a long-term illness in November 2021. The decline was named after him.

Record production

Concurrent with the official opening of Balkau decline, the company is also celebrating a record year of production with total gold output of 458,354 oz. for the the financial year ended June 30. This includes 327,300 oz. from Duketon and 131,100 oz. from Tropicana.

The annual gold production falls within Regis’ original production guidance of 450,000-500,000 oz. for the year.

“We are very pleased to deliver a record year of gold production for FY23. Most notably, the June quarter saw our operations drive a cash and bullion build of A$39 million,” Beyer stated in a news release. In the June quarter, the group’s production reached 122,479 oz., with Duketon delivering 90,600 oz. and Tropicana 31,900 oz.

“With commercial production declared at both Garden Well underground at Duketon and Havana openpit at Tropicana, we have commenced the journey from investment phase to having two cash-generating pillars that can be used to help fund our growth project, McPhillamys, once approved,” he added.