Blackham Resources Ltd. said Oct. 17 that open pit mining started at the Wiluna gold mine in Western Australia with free milling ore from the surface.

The ASX-listed miner said open pit mining at Wiluna last took place 10 years ago.

In addition, total indicated and inferred resources for the mine increased to 1.5 million ounces of gold contained in 18.6 million tonnes grading 2.52 g/t.

The resource update, which incorporated data from drilling programs totaling 100,000 meters over the last 18 months, includes indicated resource of 1.2 Moz of gold contained in 15.4 Mt grading 2.38 g/t and inferred resource of 324,000 ounces contained in 3.1 Mt grading 3.21 g/t.

Meanwhile, its recently defined free milling ore contains total resource of 236,000 ounces of gold contained in 5.2 Mt grading 1.43 g/t, with 96% of the estimate in the indicated category.

Ore reserves for the operation are being re-estimated. As of June 30, 2017, probable category reserves stood at 669,000 ounces of gold contained in 77 Mt grading 2.7 g/t.