Ramelius Resources Ltd. has increased its gold reserve inventory by 12% but has witnessed a decline of 4.5% in grade and ounces, according to a Sept. 30 statement.

Total reserves are now estimated to be 5.4 million tonnes at 2.3 g/t of gold for 405,000 contained gold ounces, while resources now stand at 29.3 million tonnes at 2.3 g/t of gold for 2.2 million contained gold ounces.

Although there has been a drop in grade and ounces, Ramelius has extended the expected life for its Vivien mine by one to four years.

“This time last year we had a three year life-of-mine and reducing, now we are projecting a four year life-of-mine and that is after producing over 110,000 ounces in the 2016 financial year,” Managing Director Mark Zeptner said.

While a revised mine plan and likely reserve upgrade at the Vivien gold mine was not possible prior to the end of the 2016 financial year, Ramelius expects that these will be incorporated in the 2017 financial year estimate, along with any deeper extensions confirmed by underground drilling scheduled for late 2016 or early 2017.

Further resources from the Milky Way area such as Stellar & Stellar West, which form part of the Mount Magnet operations, are also expected to be incorporated in the end-of-financial-year update.

Ramelius believes it can further extend the life of the Vivien mine to five years or beyond over the next year via several initiatives already in progress.