Papua New Guinea-focussed gold player, Geopacific Resources, has strengthened its Board as it moves to develop its Woodlark gold project, with the appointment of former Gold Road Resources Managing Director Ian Murray as a non-executive director.
Mr Murray has held senior leadership positions with mining companies over the past 25 years and has substantial financial, corporate, project development and operational experience.
He was instrumental in taking Gold Road’s Gruyere project from an exploration play through to a fully funded 8.2 million tonne per annum gold operation that is set to produce 300,000 ounces of gold per annum in joint venture with Gold Fields.
Geopacific Managing Director Ron Heeks said: “I look forward to working with Ian. The leadership, financial and project development skills that he brings to the company are world-class and will be invaluable as Geopacific moves the Woodlark gold project through funding and construction, and into production.”
Mr Murray said that the company’s Woodlark project’s long mine life, low strip ratio and rapid payback made it stand out from other undeveloped gold projects on the Australian Stock Exchange.
Meanwhile, Geopacific has also secured an extension to the construction timeline in the mining licence for the project from the Papua New Guinea Government.
The company now has up to 5 July 2022 to complete the construction and commissioning of the processing facility, 18 months additional to the previous deadline of January 2020.
Woodlark project holds an ore reserve of nearly 29 million tonnes grading 1.12g/t gold for 1.04 million ounces, contained within a broader JORC-compliant mineral resource estimated at 1.57 million gold ounces.
Under the definitive feasibility study, the project presents as a low strip ratio, high-margin, fully permitted open-pit mining operation, with a processing facility capable of pumping out 100,000 ounces of gold per annum for the first five years.
At a gold price of AUD$2,000 per ounce, the 13-year mining operation generates a pre-tax net cash flow of $754m, a net present value of $474m and internal rate of return of 49%.
The total capital establishment costs for the Woodlark gold project come in at just under $200m, with a third of those monies required to construct the processing plant.
At currently elevated gold prices, payback is estimated at just 1.4 years.
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By Matt Birney
