Terrain Minerals has moved to sure up its best near term production opportunity just 68km north of the historic Leonora mining precinct with a Scoping Study.
The Great Western gold project is just 1km from the Goldfields road and it is also close to existing mining plants that could potentially toll treat the ore eliminating the need for costly capital expenditure.
In a recent Jorc 2012 update the company announced a resource at Great Western of 669 000 tonnes grading 2.92 grams per tonne gold.
Terrain believes that of the 669 000 tonnes, 439 000 are minable in an open pit with the remainder suitable for an underground operation. Importantly, almost half the identified tonnes are already at either an indicated or measured status providing further certainty around the project.
The company says it has launched the Scoping Study to better understand the project’s economic value after receiving a number of unsolicited offers for the it.
Interestingly, Terrain recently discovered that the historic underground mine at Great Western was mined using a process that back filled the old stopes with processed battery sands to gain access to the ore above.
Samples of these battery sands were tested by the previous owner of the project at the Kalgoorlie school of mines and they returned an average grade of 4.0g/t gold.
Independent mining consultants Entech have been engaged to complete the Scoping Study which is expected to take six weeks to complete.
Terrain Minerals Executive Director, Justin Virgin said “The Scoping Study being conducted across Great Western provides an opportunity to assess the various development options available to the project in order to maximise value. Terrain has received a number of unsolicited approaches offering development alternatives and believes it is prudent to conduct an economic assessment prior to electing to proceed with any commercial development opportunities.”
By Matt Birney
