Brightstar Resources has kicked off a scoping study on the combined assets at its Menzies and Laverton gold projects in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, with mining set to begin at the former as soon as next quarter.
The company is moving towards becoming WA’s next gold producer after completing its successful merger with Kingwest Resources last month, bringing its combined assets up to 21 million tonnes going 1.5 grams per tonne of gold for a total of 965,000 ounces.
Brightstar has also appointed GR Engineering Services to complete a study into the refurbishment of its Laverton processing plant, in addition to assessing opportunities for expansion of the plant’s throughput.
ABGM has been chosen to complete the mining optimisation and designs of the combined mineral resource at both projects and will provide an updated mineral resource at its Cork Tree Well deposit.
Brightstar says the scoping study will be used to guide exploration and resource definition efforts into the key deposits scheduled for early extraction and cashflow generation, resulting in greater confidence and information on the first mines it will develop and operate across the portfolio. The study is also expected to identify CAPEX requirements for refurbishment and expansion of the Brightstar plant and supporting infrastructure at Menzies and Laverton.
Management says a recent site visit to the Selkirk deposit at Menzies has confirmed private Kalgoorlie-Boulder company BML Ventures’ mining fleet mobilisation is set for late next month, with mining set to kick off in August.
In July last year, Kingwest announced it had signed an agreement with BML Ventures for open-pit and underground mining at the Selkirk deposit, which forms part of the bigger Menzies gold project.
Brightstar Resources managing director Alex Rovira said: “We look forward to building a new Western Australian gold story. With a combined asset base approaching 1Moz of JORC2012 compliant gold resources over a number of deposits within our portfolio across the Laverton and Menzies hubs, we expect the Scoping Study to provide strategic direction on focused resource definition drilling activities and further study work to build Brightstar into Australia’s next meaningful gold producer.”
In April, assays from the first 13 holes drilled at Cork Tree Well confirmed gold-mineralised extensions along strike and at depth, with the best results including a 2m hit grading 4.23g/t gold from 106m. Drilling was designed to identify gold mineralisation outside the current JORC resource to increase it and also bolster confidence levels from the inferred to indicated category.
The results of the company’s scoping study are expected to be released next quarter and will include an updated mineral resource for the Cork Well Tree deposit. It also has plans to begin a drill campaign across both the Laverton and Menzies gold projects to target resource growth, grade and quality.
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By Michael Philipps
