GMA’s Australian operation has focused exploration activities on delineating and characterizing the mine's broader geological footprint.

The objective of the exploration work has underpinned resource estimates and provides confidence in a mine life of at least 25 years.

According to GMA Resource Manager Tom Southwell,  a wide spaced drill hole programme commenced in 2013 was aimed at proving up the broader geology of GMA's Australian mine.

"The initial results were supported by a series of closer spaced drilling campaigns undertaken through 2014 to 2015. Currently, evaluation work is being conducted till end of this year to determine a suitable area to commence operations in this area of the mining tenements," Tom said.

Newly explored area bolsters long term supply

“Having another deposit enhances our ability to continue consistently producing the best quality garnet. This maintains the high and consistent standards of our production output over the longer term,” Tom said.

“Moreover, it ensures a continuous supply of high quality GMA Garnet is available for the long term in the global abrasive market. Our customers can be confident when planning future projects that GMA will continue to consistently supply reliable and high quality garnet,” Tom added.

GMA commits to significant investment to support growth plans

GMA has also made a significant investment in laboratory equipment and increased staffing levels to support the exploration work.

This investment improves assay turnaround times and enables a larger volume of exploration samples to be processed per year.

Ongoing exploration results underpin confidence that GMA’s Australian operations have the resource to sustain production for the long term future. 

In addition, GMA aims to grow beyond the current production levels and expand the overall global production by developing new resources outside of Australia from South Africa and from GMA’s mine in Montana, USA.

By Stephanie Cheong, GMA Group