Name of the Project
Woodlark gold project.

Location
Woodlark is located on an island in the Milne Bay province of Papua New Guinea.

Client
The project is a joint venture between Kula Gold and Geopacific Resources.

Geopacific holds the right to increase its interest in Woodlark through standard and incentive options.

Project Description
A prefeasibility study (PFS) has concluded that the project is a robust, low-cost and low-stripping-ratio openpit operation that can deliver 100 000 oz of gold over ten years. 

The project has reserves of 34.7-million tonnes grading 0.99 g/t gold and resources of 47.07-million tonnes grading 1.04 g/t gold.

Opencut mining using conventional excavator and truck fleets has been selected to mine the shallow pits, which will be developed using multiple, stage pit designs. 

The staged pits allows for the targeting of high-grade material in the first two years of operation, where the grade will be 1.63 g/t and 1.54 g/t gold respectively.

Ore will be hauled directly to a run-of-mine pad adjacent to the processing plant using articulate dump trucks. 

The processing plant will use conventional processing methods.

The plant includes a 2.4-million-tonne-a-year milling capacity for an operating life of more than ten years. 

Up to 60% of the gold will be recovered by a gravity concentrator, significantly decreasing the use of the carbon-in-leach circuit.

The proposed plant comprises jaw crushing, semiautogenous and ball milling, gravity separation, conventional carbon-in-leach (CIL) and marine tailings discharge.

The Woodlark orebody is amenable to being upgraded using simple gravity techniques.

From the middle of the third year, a simple upgrade plant will provide an upgraded product with contained gold of about 25 000 oz/y to the CIL. 

The feed to the upgrade plant will comprise 2.4-million tonnes of 0.3 g/t to 0.6 g/t gold a year. 

It is expected to produce three-million tonnes of upgraded feed grading 1.84 g/t gold over the life of the mine.

The construction of the upgrade plant is envisaged to start after the payback of the initial development.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has pretax net present value, at an 8% discount rate, of $170-million and an internal rate of return of 38%, with a capital payback of two years.

Value
The project has a capital cost of $180-million.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The completion of the PFS enables Geopacific to increase its overall economic interest in the project to 93%, comprising a direct interest of 51% and a further interest of 42% through its 85% holding of Kula shares.

Aspects of the PFS have been completed to a definitive feasibility study (DFS) level, these including mining costs and metallurgical testwork.

Geopacific’s board has approved the completion of the final elements of the DFS. 

The aim of the DFS is to finalise and optimise the plant design and infrastructure to deliver capital cost estimates within a 15% level of accuracy and further optimise operating costs.

The DFS is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2018.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Ammtec (metallurgical testwork), Independent Metallurgical Operations, Lycopodium and ALS Metallurgy (metallurgical testwork – review), Lycopodium (DFS), Independent Metallurgical Operations (process flowsheet).

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Geopacific Resources, tel +61 8 6143 1820 or email info@geopacific.com.au.