PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed junior Ausgold on Wednesday revealed that its Katanning gold project, in Western Australia, would require a capital investment of some A$70-million.
Over the projected four-year mine-life, the project was expected to produce an average 47 340 oz/y, at a C1 cash cost of A$928/oz, to generate gross revenues of A$316-million.
The scoping study assumed the development of the Jinkas and Dingo deposits, which contain a total mineral resource of 221 152 oz, which would be processed at a rate of 0.92-million tonnes a year.
The scoping study assumed that the Katanning ore would be treated through a conventional carbon-in-leach process route, with the treatment plant to be located at the existing plant site, adjacent to the south of the proposed Jinkas openpit mine.
“A positive scoping study is an important milestone in benchmarking Ausgold as an emerging gold producer with a potential high-value, low-risk openpit development,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Ausgold also believed that there was significant potential to grow the mineral resource at the mine site through extensional drilling around the two deposits, as well as at other known targets.
An optimisation of the Jackson resource was planned, and the company had previously highlighted the priority for drilling the White Dam mineralisation in the footwall of the Jinkas resource. Further exploration drilling was also planned to test targets at Datatine and Jinkas West.