Auric Mining is a step closer to a maiden gold pour from its Jeffreys Find project near Norseman in Western Australia, with the first 30,000 tonnes of gold ore set for processing once it is transported to Greenfields Mill in Coolgardie.
The company says mining at the site has been ongoing for six weeks and it has triple road trains secured to haul its first ore to Coolgardie, where it will be processed as a 30,000-tonne parcel.
Jeffreys Find’s gold deposit has a resource of 1.21 million tonnes grading 1.22 grams per tonne gold for a total of 47,200 ounces. Metallurgical testwork undertaken by Auric has predicted gold recoveries of between 90 per cent and 95 per cent.
The company’s business partner BML Ventures, a well-known and adept gold mining contractor, will incur and pay all costs in relation to mining the gold resources. The two companies will then retain an equal share of the net cash surplus after the payment of all mining and processing costs.
Once the first stage of the operation is complete, BML is expected to expand the mine to the final pit design next year. Mining is predicted to be completed by the end of next year.
Management says the project was originally budgeted at a gold price of $2600 per ounce. The precious yellow metal is currently trading at about $2900 per ounce, so the company expects to receive a significant cash boost once its processed gold is sold at the end of quarter.
Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “We now have a well-established, open pit at the mine site and mining is proceeding according to plan. With 12,500 tonnes of ore already transported to Coolgardie we are just a short time away from our maiden gold pour. Once the first approximately 30,000 tonnes is processed it will be clear how this project is going to unfold. I can say both parties are well satisfied with the effort to date.”
The company was established to explore for gold and to develop the precious metal and other deposits in WA’s Widgiemooltha and Norseman areas. It has 640 square kilometres of tenements in four project areas.
At Widgiemooltha, its Munda deposit hosts a resource of 198,700 ounces of gold at a grade of 1.38g/t. The company’s total JORC resource base is 5.69 million tonnes at 1.35g/t gold for 245,900 ounces, with contributions from its Munda and Jeffreys Find deposits. Recent drilling at Munda includes high-grade intercepts such as 13m grading 14.62g/t.
Auric last month revealed details from a scoping study on its Munda deposit that supported the potential for open-pit mining and the processing of ore at an existing toll treatment plant and also outlined a cashflow surplus of $76.9 million under a base-case gold price scenario.
Once the first Jeffreys Find gold is poured at Coolgardie and then sold, the company expects to be in a cashed-up position to further develop its Munda operations. It has envisaged mining some 100,000 to 120,000 ounces in a three-year mine life.
With a self-funding development plan for Munda now set to roll out courtesy of the Jefferys Find cash flow, Auric is in the box seat to control its own gold destiny.
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By Steve Kaless
