PERTH (miningweekly.com) – An expansion study at the Nullagine gold project, in Western Australia, has confirmed that production could be increased to about 100 000 oz/y, up from the current 2017 targets of between 75 000 oz and 80 000 oz.
The expansion study found that ASX-listed Millennium Minerals' plan to integrate a flotation circuit capable of treating sulphide ores with the existing two-million-tonne-a-year carbon-in-leach plant, is technically and economically sound.
The company reported on Thursday that the study found that a capital expenditure of between A$40-million to A$46-million would be required to expand the Nullagine operation, with processing costs estimated at around A$19/t, compared with the current processing costs for oxide ore of A$17/t.
The processing cost for the sulphide ore through the flotation circuit is expected to reach around A$27.50/t.
Millennium CEO Peter Cash said that considering the strong findings of the study, the company would now move to a feasibility study on the growth strategy.
“The expansion study supports our plan to establish longer mine life and increased production rates using the existing 850 000 oz of sulphide mineral resource. The strong result marks another pivotal step in our plan, which is a potential game-changer for Millennium,” Cash said.
“There is an immense scope to significantly grow the mineral resource base below and along strike of the existing openpits.
“We believe there is significant upside for our shareholders for this strategy and we will seek to move forward with further studies and drilling programmes to underpin the feasibility study for this expansion.”