Over the past weeks, infill drilling work has been undertaken at the McPhillamy deposit project site.

With the first stage of infill drilling expected to be completed early in 2017, the exploratory drilling will provide a more detailed picture of the gold mineralisation at the deposit, said Rod Smith, General Manager NSW of Regis Resources.

“At present, the average distance between drill holes at McPhillamys is around 50 metres and this drill program will reduce that distance between drill holes to around 25 metres,” he said, “It will also provide further geotechnical, geochemical, hydrogeological and metallurgical data for the deposit, all of which is required for the feasibility study, which will need to be completed prior to project development.”

Regis Resources has been having difficulty securing water for the mine and Mr Smith said that the company was working on two proposals, both of which had a number of hurdles that they needed to leap.

“The proposal to use treated effluent from Bathurst has been deferred and the alternate concept that people are aware of, pumping water from Lithgow, is certainly another possibility that we’re looking at,” he said.

For Mr Smith the biggest concern with pumping water from the closed Wallerawang power station is does the project add up financially, and is it sustainable.

“What we need to ascertain is whether the capital cost of the project is sustainable, viable and will provide us with the surety of supply that we need to keep the mine running,” he said.

Regis are also conducting environmental baseline monitoring at the site.

“The work will enable the feasibility study and environmental impact statement for the project to be expedited in a timely manner should a secure sustainable water source be identified in the near future,” Mr Smith said.