PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed junior Mantle Mining on Friday announced plans to prioritise the return of production at the Norton gold mine, in Queensland, following a successful capital raise earlier this year.
Mantle raised some A$2.7-million through a share placement, allowing the company to act on its plans for the Norton mine.
Mantle said that the plans to return to production at the Norton mine included the final engineering design and confirmation of delivery schedules for the processing plant, along with a bulk sampling programme to allow for the finalisation of plant design.
The construction and on-site commissioning of the project would be fast-tracked, using in-house and external expertise, once equipment delivery schedules had been confirmed, with concentrate production initially expected to come from surface stockpiles.
A 2015 scoping study for the Norton project estimated that some 10 340 oz of gold would be recovered over the two-and-a-half-year mine life. Mining would be done at a rate of 25 000 t/y, with the project expected to deliver a net present value of A$4.7-million.