Brought to you by BULLSNBEARS
Michael Busbridge
Auric Mining has delivered a stunning first strike from its Munda gold mine close to Widgiemooltha, raking in $16.85 million in gold gross sales and banking $10.82 million in chilly, arduous money after prices.
The first mining marketing campaign from the corporate’s starter pit at Munda, which completed two weeks in the past, noticed 57,900 tonnes of ore trucked to Black Cat Syndicate’s Lakewood Mill in Kalgoorlie for a remaining tally of 2718 ounces of gold.
The processed ore clocked in at a tidy head grade of 1.61 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, with the mill operating at a formidable 90.67 per cent restoration price. Even higher, Auric pocketed a mean of $6200 an oz for the gold, a quantity that speaks to each the booming gold worth and what the corporate says is a extremely environment friendly Munda-Lakewood toll-treating partnership.
Auric says the early payday from the primary stage has not solely crushed market expectations, it additionally catapults the corporate onto the radar as certainly one of Western Australia’s latest high-margin gold producers.
‘The remaining reconciliation of marketing campaign one confirms an impressive consequence for Auric.’
Auric Mining managing director Mark English
With 6100 ounces forecast to be produced from the starter pit by February and all-in sustaining prices coming in at a lean $2635 an oz, Auric’s opening act at Munda has proved a boon. With gold nonetheless on the boil, the margin speaks for itself.
The unique mannequin, which was primarily based on a gold worth of simply $3500 an oz, now look fully undercooked. Those early assumptions forecast the starter pit to generate $5.3 million in free cashflow throughout levels one and two and but the primary marketing campaign has virtually doubled that quantity. Kalgoorlie-based MineComp, which modelled the starter pit, has since made some savvy adjustments to its design, which might now ship much more ore on the base of the pit.
What occurs subsequent could possibly be even larger. Auric has lined up a hefty 65,000 tonnes of ore for its second milling marketing campaign at Lakewood in mid-January. The run is estimated to supply as much as 3382 ounces of gold and units the stage for one more deluge of money if the ore performs something like the primary batch.
Auric Mining managing director Mark English stated: “The remaining reconciliation of marketing campaign one confirms an impressive consequence for Auric. These outcomes reinforce the standard of the Munda orebody and validate our growth technique as we put together for marketing campaign two milling in January 2026.”
Following completion of the second processing marketing campaign, Auric plans to kick off preparations for an even bigger prize on the firm’s Munda Main Pit. Workflow will embrace detailed design, scheduling and financial evaluation. Using a cut-off grade of 0.5g/t gold, the Munda Pit hosts 3.65 million tonnes grading 1.23g/t gold for 145,000 ounces of gold.
However, with a booming gold worth – now buying and selling at greater than A$6000 per ounce – Minecomp have hinted by incorporating a decrease cut-off to 0.2 g/t gold the indicated and inferred useful resource would swell to 189,000 ounces gold.
When the corporate ran a scoping research on the Main pit in 2023, its modelling used a gold worth of simply A$2600 per ounce to forecast a manufacturing of 1.72 million tonnes grading 2.2 g/t gold for 117,000 ounces.
Elsewhere, Auric has been busy increasing its gold exploration footprint within the area and choosing up processing infrastructure in a bid to turn out to be a long-term gold producer.
First off, the corporate accomplished a deal to purchase the historic Burbanks gold processing plant simply south of Coolgardie in September for $4.4m. The facility, which has been closed since 2019, is inside trucking distance of current Auric gold assets.
Burbanks is a major crushing, grinding and carbon-in-leach (CIL) facility with a capability of 180,000 tonnes each year. The acquisition contains all associated property, permits, licences and infrastructure from personal distributors, together with entry to energy, water and tailings dams.
Auric plans to refurbish the plant and on the similar time improve the tonnage capability. Several industrial choices exist for Auric, together with creating its personal third-party toll remedy facility as soon as the plant is up and operating.
Last month, Auric additionally picked up the Lindsay’s gold mission which incorporates 4 key tenements at Gindalbie, 60kms northeast of Kalgoorlie. The prize sitting inside these grounds is the Parrot Feathers open pit, which was partially mined for simply 6153 ounces earlier than earlier proprietor KalNorth walked away within the 2013 gold hunch. It presents Auric a novel and mining prepared alternative to leverage current infrastructure and capitalise on exceptionally robust gold costs.
Auric is positioning itself as a key participant in Western Australia’s gold sector by buying cost-effective property, constructing a portfolio of strategic tenements and securing processing options for ore from the Munda and Lindsay’s initiatives. With gold costs surging, the corporate is poised for important development and profitability throughout the Western Australian gold sector.
Is your ASX-listed firm doing one thing fascinating? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
