By: OrePulse

West Wits Mining plans to drill 17 holes at its Bird Reef Central uranium-gold project near Johannesburg, South Africa, with the program expected to start by the end of November.

The contracted drilling covers about 5,750 meters across a four-kilometer strike of the Bird Reef package, with holes spaced roughly 250 meters apart and depths ranging from 100 to 400 meters, the company said. The three-phase program is funded from existing cash reserves and is designed to produce an initial uranium resource estimate while also expanding the existing gold resource at the site. Results from the three phases are expected progressively through the first half of 2027.

West Wits already has a gold resource at Bird Reef Central estimated under the JORC (2012) standard at 1.38 million tonnes grading 2.66 grams of gold per tonne, containing about 117,600 ounces, with roughly 65% of those ounces classified as measured or indicated. The company said gold and uranium mineralization occur in adjacent reef horizons at the project, raising the possibility that both metals could eventually be extracted using shared infrastructure.

Bird Reef Central lies about four kilometers northwest of West Wits' producing Qala Shallows gold mine and sits within the same Mining Right. The company said the western section of that Mining Right, where Bird Reef Central is located, has not previously been mined.

West Wits chief executive Rudi Deysel said Bird Reef Central gives shareholders "a second, independent growth option within the same Mining Right."

The drilling announcement follows West Wits' agreement in April to sell its Mt Cecelia project in Western Australia to Aventine Resources through the sale of its subsidiary, Northern Reserves, as the company narrows its focus to its South African gold and uranium assets.