PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining at the Thunderbox gold mine, in Western Australia, continued to progress ahead of schedule, with owner Saracen Mineral Holdings on Wednesday confirming that the project was still slated to produce its first gold in the June quarter of next year.
First ore was mined in October, ahead of schedule, and Saracen reported that openpit mining had advanced to a depth of 40 m, with 4.46-million bank cubic metres mined to date.
The plant refurbishment was also continuing ahead of schedule and the project commissioning was on track for the March quarter of next year.
Saracen MD Raleigh Finlayson said that the progress at Thunderbox had put the company in an "outstanding" position.
“First gold from Thunderbox will see Saracen produce gold from multiple operations for the first time, doubling our production base. Importantly, this growth is both low cost, high margin, and internally funded.”
The A$65-million Thunderbox project was expected to add about 20 000 oz to Saracen’s 2016 production guidance of between 150 000 oz and 160 000 oz, and at full production would double the gold miner’s output to about 300 000 oz/y at an all-in sustaining cost of A$1 075/oz, within two years.