Ravenswood Gold has an eye to the next horizon as its $400 million expansion project comes to a head, with plans to boost exploration and further extend mine life at the North Queensland operation.

Ravenswood Gold general manager operations Dave Mackay said the company was working on promising prospects adjacent to current operations and across its regional tenements.

“Over the last two and a half years Ravenswood Gold  has already invested over $10 million into exploration around the site and in the region,” he said.

“Results to date have been incredible and we have already increased our mineral resource by 500,000 ounces of gold, which is an impressive conversion rate.

“Once the construction stage of the expansion project is up and running we’ll be looking to ramp up the exploration program even further.”

Owners EMR and GEAR committed to the expansion project when they took over the Ravenswood gold operations, 90km east of Charters Towers, from Resolute Mining in 2020.

Construction is in its final phase and the site is set to hit its targeted output rate of over 200,000 oz per annum around the end of the year.

Related: Ravenswood Gold expansion steams towards finish line

Mr Mackay said planned drilling would take in near-mine targets and some prospects in the Mingela area about 40km north of the Ravenswood Gold operations.

“Some of it is Inferred Resource, some of it is recent discovery and not quite there yet, but we’re optimistic that it will be in another 12 months,” he said.

“Certainly, it looks very interesting and prospective. And we’ve also got another prospect about 8km to the south of the mine that has got some good indicators at surface, but we haven’t got any holes in it yet.

“So, we’re going to start drilling that in the near future as well… it’s got all the right markers from an exploration perspective with prospective structures, widespread alteration and high grade rock chips up to 40.2 g/t gold.”

Mr Mackay was optimistic about what the planned exploration drive would bring for Ravenswood Gold’s future.

“We have 15 years in front of us with current production,” he said.

“We’ll be looking to increase that with the near-mine exploration over the coming year. And if any of this other ground proves up, then it’s onwards and upwards from there.

“There’s certainly a huge potential for the mine to be operating for many decades to come”