PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold developer Blackham Resources has pulled the trigger at the Matilda gold project, in Western Australia, approving the refurbishments to both plant equipment and the camp.
The Wiluna gold plant refurbishment would be undertaken by contractors Interquip/Mintrex and Practon Engineering, with all critical path long-lead items having been ordered and engineering work started.
Blackham had also committed to the refurbishment of the Matilda camp.
Blackham MD Bryan Dixon said on Wednesday that the A$20.3-million placement announced earlier this week had allowed for the contracts to be awarded, and work to proceed at Matilda.
A prefeasibility study in late 2015 found that the Matilda mine would require a capital investment of A$28-million to deliver an average 98 000 oz/y over a mine life of nearly five years, at a life-of-mine C1 cash cost of A$920/oz.
It was expected that the project would make use of mining contractors and would employ openpit operations for the Matilda, Williamson and Galaxy deposits, while two underground mines had also been designed for the Wiluna deposit.