JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed Mantle Mining plans to accelerate the restart of gold production at its large, high-grade Morning Star gold mine, in Victoria, following the completion of an internal review.
The 95%-owned project, which holds an 80 000 t/y processing plant on site, is being prioritised above Mantle's other significant project, Norton, near Gladstone, in Queensland.
“While [this] is an attractive project, the company’s focus and efforts will be better rewarded by focusing on Morning Star, which is a significantly larger and higher grade gold mine. Very few companies have the dominant land position and a fully-permitted operation in one of Australia’s great high‐grade gold districts, and we intend to take full advantage of that situation,” Mantle executive director Dr Rick Valenta said in statement on Monday.
Norton would now be placed on care and maintenance, while Mantle also plans to divest from its legacy coal assets.
The company now aims to bring the Morning Star mine back into production with a systematic programme including an accelerated effort to bring the current Joint Ore Reserves Committee- (Jorc-) compliant resource up to the Jorc 2012 standard and to take full advantage of the large historical database of drillholes, underground mapping and sampling.
Morning Star would also immediately start with a programme to return the Morning Star mine to production, through formulation and implementation of a plan based on the extensive experience of its local and corporate teams, while undertaking a full review and optimisation of the existing process plant to ensure its smooth operation.
Further, the midtier gold miner will prioritise regional targets for exploration once production has been achieved, focusing on five targets identified in the 650 km2 tenement area.
Continuing its strategy of board and management renewal, Mantle appointed Valenta to take overall executive leadership, effective immediately.
Mantle’s long‐term MD, Ian Kraemer, has stepped down from the board and will remain as a consultant to the company for a transitional period.