Ora Banda Mining (ASX: OBM) Surges 21% After Round Dam Grows 964% to 1.33Moz – Is OBM a Buy?

Ora Banda Surges as Round Dam Hits 1.33 Moz

Ora Banda Mining (ASX: OBM) surged 21% to A$1.42 on Wednesday after announcing a resource upgrade that genuinely changes the story at its Davyhurst gold project in Western Australia. The Round Dam deposit, which held just 125,000 ounces not long ago, now contains 1.33 million ounces of gold. That is not a small refinement. It is a tenfold increase that lifts Ora Banda’s total resource base by 57% to 3.3 million ounces, and it signals that the company may be sitting on something much bigger than the market previously gave it credit for.

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Round Dam’s Scale Is Bigger Than Anyone Expected

Here is the part that makes this announcement stand out. Ora Banda has only drilled 7.5 kilometres of an 18-kilometre mineralised corridor at Round Dam. In other words, the company has explored less than half of the zone, and it has already found 1.33 million ounces. The deposit remains open along the strike and at depth, with drilling continuing right now.

This suggests the 1.33 million ounce figure is not a ceiling. It is much closer to a starting point. Management said there is significant potential to find more gold further along the trend, and we believe this resource will continue to grow through the rest of FY26. For investors, that kind of optionality is rare and valuable.

Ora Banda Positions for a Step-Change in Production

The company produced around 90,000 ounces in FY25 and is targeting 140,000 to 155,000 ounces in FY26, a significant step up already underway. But the Round Dam upgrade points to a much larger operation down the track. Ora Banda is advancing studies for a standalone processing facility of roughly 3 million tonnes per annum at Davyhurst, which would allow Round Dam to be developed as a major production centre in its own right.

Supporting all of this is an A$73 million exploration budget for FY26, backed by a strong balance sheet. The company recently reported a record half-year operating cash flow of A$184 million and held A$155.4 million in cash in December 2025. This means Ora Banda is funding its growth from its own earnings rather than diluting shareholders, which is an important distinction for investors evaluating management quality.

The Investor’s Takeaway

The Round Dam upgrade is genuinely exciting, but investors should understand where the risks sit. The project economics are calculated at a gold price of A$5,000 per ounce. That may sound like a high bar, but the current spot price is sitting around A$7,250 per ounce, meaning the resource is economic with roughly 45% headroom before the numbers stop working. That is a meaningful buffer and makes the development case considerably more robust than it might first appear.

There is also further work to do on the resource itself. The majority of the 1.33 million ounces sits in the lower-confidence inferred category, which needs more drilling to firm up. That work is ongoing, and additional resource updates across other Davyhurst deposits are planned for mid-2026.

We believe OBM suits growth investors who are positive on gold and comfortable with exploration upside. Those updates in mid-2026 will be the next key moment to watch.