• OBM records 8.8m at 6.3g/t gold in drilling at Little Gem prospect at Davyhurst
• Phase 3 drilling underway to test priority Diamond and Ruby lodes
• Other lodes will be tested over the course of FY26.

 

Special Report: Phase 2 drilling by Ora Banda Mining at the Davyhurst project in WA has expanded the multi-lode gold system at Little Gem prospect to a strike of more than 1km.

The company is on the hunt for more gold resources that could extend the mine life across its Davyhurst project.

Ora Banda Mining (ASX:OBM) has budgeted a whopping $73m to deliver an extraordinary 329km of drilling in FY26, which is double the last three years of drilling activity combined.

The previous spend saw 189km punched into the ground to find two now developed underground mines and numerous advanced targets.

This $73m splash will underpin mine life extension at Riverina and Sand King underground mines, assess whether Waihi deposit can be taken underground, advance the Little Gem, Round Dam and Mulline prospects, and pursue belt-wide exploration over 140km of tenure.

And so far, it’s proving fruitful, with the latest 16-hole program at Little Gem confirming high gold grades and large lode widths, with hole LGDD25008 returning 8.8m at 6.3g/t from 320 metres below surface.

Four of the lodes have been modelled – Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire and Tanzanite.

Notably, the LGDD25008 intersection is a 400-metre step out to the north of LGDD25005 which previously returned 22.7m at 5.0g/t.

OBM said this showed the prospective strike of a well-developed high-grade shoot on the Diamond Lode was more than 1,000 metres and remained open at depth.

While only early-stage drill testing, the company is confident of the greenfields potential of the Little Gem-Sunraysia system and has already started a phase 3 follow up program.

 

A system of significant size and scale

This will see 38 holes drilled with two diamond rigs and one RC rig active.

The program will target the priority Diamond and Ruby lodes from the surface down to 500 metres, with some deeper drill testing of the system down to 750 metres below surface planned.

Other lodes will be tested over the course of FY26.

“These results continue to expand the potential of Little Gem as a large-scale, high-grade and multi-lode system,” OBM managing director Luke Creagh said.

“These results demonstrate a potential strike length in excess of 1,000 metres and the system remains open at depth.

“The 38-hole phase 3 program at Little Gem will provide significant drill coverage of the interpreted high-grade lodes to rapidly advance our understanding of the size and scale of the system.

“The Little Gem trend is one of multiple drill programs we have commenced as part of the $73 million allocated to exploration and resource development drilling in FY26 and we are looking forward to results from all of these programs.”

In addition, the mafic units to the west of the Little Gem prospect which host the Riverina Mine to the north, remain largely untested by drilling.

The company plans to test this prospective mafic sequence in conjunction with the phase 3 program.

 

 

This article was developed in collaboration with Ora Banda Mining, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

 

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.