JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX- and TSX-listed Crescent Gold has restarted mining and trucking operations at its Laverton gold project, in Western Australia.

Crescent has initiated its second mining campaign at Laverton, following a 14-month development phase and the resulting construction of a definitive mine schedule, after it signed an ore purchase agreement with world number-one gold-miner Barrick Gold.

Crescent said on Friday that the deal would lead to lower processing costs at its existing mill, owing to economies of scale and the current surplus capacity at Barrick’s Granny Smith Mill (BGSM).

Crescent’s 1,5-million tons a year Barnicoat mill, which was inherited with the original Laverton foundation tenement package, remained on care-and-maintenance.

“We are examining a number of commercial options in respect to its longer-term utilisation” the company said in a statement.

Crescent undertook a formal tendering and capabilities process to select the successful mining contractor and haulage contractor for the Laverton project. These two groups have mobilised to the site.

Against Crescent’s stated schedule, the Laverton development has progressed well, the miner reported.

It said mining activities have started on time, and the initial programme of works included the continuation of the mining of ore and waste from the Sickle pit, as well as the continuation of stripping plus mining of waste and ore from the Euro pit.

The ore at both pits would be stockpiled on an interim basis before being trucked to BGSM, where it will be stockpiled on the primary run-of-mine pad in order to build a stockpile of about 240 000 t. The ore would then be processed over an agreed campaign period.

Revenues from ore payments made to Crescent by Barrick, will start once processing of Laverton ore has started.

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