PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner Millennium Minerals has secured a A$17.5-million working facility from Investec Australia to fund the expansion of its Nullagine project, in Western Australia.

In addition to the A$17.5-million revolving loan facility, Millennium also agreed to an additional risk management facility for gold hedging of up to 40 000 oz.

CEO Peter Cash said on Wednesday that the company was delighted to have secured Investec’s support in the expansion of the Nullagine project.

"Investec has financed numerous high-profile and successful Australian gold projects and gold companies. Having them involved as we take this next critical step in our development represents a big vote of confidence in the future of both Millennium and the Nullagine project.”

Cash said that while the company had the ability to fund its growth pathway from internal sources, having access to these facilities would ensure that Millennium could continue to fund all of its key growth initiatives, including its ongoing exploration programme and the development of an underground mine at Bartons, in parallel with the plant expansion.

The A$15-million plant expansion will facilitate the treatment of sulphide resources at Nullagine, providing Millennium with the foundation to achieve its strategy of 100 000 oz/y gold production with a minimum mine life of five years.

Millennium recently confirmed its preferred processing configuration for the sulphide circuit, which would involve scavenging un-leached sulphide concentrates from the existing carbon-in-leach tailings and subjecting them to ultra fine grinding and intense cyanidation to improve the leach recovery.

“The relatively modest direct capital cost of the expansion, just A$15-million, means that we can carefully manage and control our funding requirements over the next six to nine months, ensuring that we can deliver this critical expansion programme on time while continuing to grow our resource and reserve inventory,” said Cash.

Commissioning of the plant has been targeted for the first quarter of 2019.