Nusantara Resources Ltd. on Feb. 27 reported an updated mineral resource estimate for the Salu Bulo gold deposit at its Awak Mas gold project in Indonesia, following the inclusion of 12 additional diamond drillholes from the first phase of a drilling program.

Using a cutoff grade of 0.5 g/t and a US$1,400/oz optimization shell, the deposit now hosts 180,000 ounces of gold within 3.7 million tonnes at 1.53 g/t of gold in the indicated and inferred categories.

This represents a 65% increase in terms of contained metal ounces when compared to the May 2017 estimate, with 1.4 million tonnes grading 2.57 g/t of gold for 120,000 ounces of contained gold using a cutoff grade above 1.5 g/t of gold.

The latest update brings the total Awak Mas gold project resource to 2 million ounces of gold contained within 45 million tonnes at 1.38 g/t of gold. A January estimate placed Awak Mas gold resources at 1.9 million ounces.

Using a lower gold price of US$1,200/oz in constrained optimization shells, the total indicated and inferred resource at 0.5 g/t of gold will be 40.4 million tonnes at 1.40 g/t of gold for 1.82 million contained ounces.

The company said about 86% of the contained ounces within the Salu Bulo deposit and approximately 81% of the contained ounces for the entire project now lie in the indicated resource category.

The ASX-listed company will incorporate the updated resource in the ongoing definitive feasibility study on the project. The study is expected to be completed by mid- to late 2018, with initial production planned in 2020.