Dacian increased the contained gold at the project’s Westralia prospect by 76% to 1.5 million ounces this week in an announcement coinciding with the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in Kalgoorlie.

The deposit now has a total mineral resource of 9.2 million tonnes at 5.1 grams per tonne gold for 1.5 million ounces at a 2gpt cut-off.

The new mineral resource includes an inferred mineral resource of 1.1Mt at 9.2gpt for 318,000 ounces for a new footwall discovered at 500m to the north of the previous Westralia resource late last month.

Addressing the audience at Diggers, Williams said the prospect compared favourably with the resource at the Trident gold mine in WA, which he was involved with as managing director and chief executive of Avoca Resources between 2002 and 2011 when it merged with Anatolia Minerals.

“That resource at Westralia is almost twice the size of the resource that we had at Trident when we developed Trident into gold mine which was the cornerstone for Avoca becoming a billion-dollar company,” he said.

“I’m very optimistic that we have a fantastic asset at Westralia of 1.5 million ounces, and we are hopeful we can develop it into a long-life underground gold mine.”

The company also recently updated the mineral resource for the Jupiter deposit at Mt Morgans to 24.1Mt at 1.3gpt for 1Moz with a 0.5gpt cut-off.

The project’s total current resource now stands at 47.1Mt at 2gpt gold for 3.1Moz.

Williams said the next step for the company would be to assess its mining options at both deposits.

“Our task at present is to complete the prefeasibility studies for Westralia and Jupiter in tandem with the aim of a full feasibility and an aspirational reserve at the end of next year of 1.3 million ounces,” he said.

“Should that be enough to develop a standalone then its construction in 2017 and production in 2018. If it’s not then it will be toll milling.

“Our view today is that that is the most likely option, and we will look at project development in 2017.”

After a period of inactivity during the 2000s, the resources at Dacian have been increased more than 250% since Dacian listed on the ASX in November 2012.

The company said it believed there was greater exploration potential at the project outside of the known deposits.

Shares in Dacian were 1.1% higher yesterday at 44.5c.