Auric Mining has topped its record price for gold sales from its Jeffreys Find mine near Norseman in Western Australia after selling 1264 ounces at $3131 per ounce to the Perth Mint for a gross revenue of nearly $4 million.
The joint venture operation between Auric and Kalgoorlie-based BML Ventures has now sold 8293 ounces from the gold mine for a gross revenue of close to $25 million. More than 9400 ounces have been produced from the stage-one campaign, with milling complete at the Greenfields mill at Coolgardie with more than 176,000 dry metric tonnes milled.
And it has come with serendipitous timing, as the Australian gold price has soared on the back of the raging conflict in the Middle East.
Adding to Auric’s bottom line, BML Ventures will incur and pay all costs in relation to mining the gold resource at Jeffreys Find. The two companies will then retain an equal share of the net cash surplus after the payment of all mining and processing costs, providing the pair with an estimated $4.5 million each.
Just last week, the JV recorded one of the highest-ever gold price sales in Australia after selling 1361 ounces from its Jeffreys Find mine at $3130 per ounce to the Perth Mint for a gross revenue of $4.26 million.
The second stage of mining is expected to begin early next year and is almost certain to lead to another splash of free cash later in 2024.
Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “All the ore has been milled with the last of the gold passing through the system at the Greenfields Mill and at Perth Mint. Jeffreys Find Stage One production will be close to 10,000 ounces. With gold prices at near record highs, together with excellent production, the project is expected to produce more than $9.0 million total surplus cash for the two partners. A terrific result for both of us.”
The company was established in 2020 to explore for gold and other deposits in WA’s Widgiemooltha and Norseman areas. It has 640 square kilometres of tenements in four project areas.
Management says revenue from the Jeffreys Find project will allow the company to inject millions of dollars into its ongoing development – and more specifically at its 100 per cent-owned Munda gold deposit near Widgiemooltha. The company rates Munda as its “big game”.
Munda hosts a resource of about 198,700 ounces of gold at a grade of 1.38 grams per tonne and is conveniently located about 34km south-west of the mining town of Kambalda. It sits just 3km south-west of Mincor Resources’ Widgiemooltha gold project, which has a mineral resource of 4.3 million tonnes at 2g/t gold for 273,600 ounces.
A recently-released scoping study on Munda outlined a cashflow surplus of $76.9 million under a base-case scenario, using an assumed gold price of $2600 per ounce. Today’s gold price in Australia is still hovering up near $3130 an ounce.
Auric has already launched a grade control drilling campaign at the deposit and plans to have a starter pit at Munda producing gold as early as next year, before expanding the mine in 2025 and beyond.
To have been able to protect its capital structure with better-than-expected results at the relatively short-term Jefferys Find operation – which still has another year of production to go – has given the company the chance to have a decent swing at the Munda play it believes will throw up even greater riches.
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By Michael Philipps
