Lady Julie one of Australia’s highest margin undeveloped projects – Magnetic

7th March 2024 By: Creamer Media Reporter

The Lady Julie gold project, near Laverton, in Western Australia, is technically and financially robust, ASX-listed Magnetic Resources reported on Thursday.

A prefeasibility study has confirmed that Lady Julie is a low-cost, high-margin project that will produce 720 000 oz at an all-in sustaining cost of A$1 445/oz over a nine-year mine life.

The study produced a pretax internal rate of return of 85% at A$2 800/oz, rising to 108% at the current spot price of A$3 100/oz. Its net present value, using an 8% discount, is A$547-million at A$2 800/oz and A$690-million at the current spot price.

Development capital of A$93.4-million will be required.

“The excellent PFS outcome demonstrates that Magnetic’s Lady Julie gold project is one of the highest margin, undeveloped gold projects in Australia. The project’s low-cost profile and strong financial return metrics are primarily driven by the extraordinary near-surface, high-grade nature of the Lady Julie Central and Lady Julie North 4 deposits. This low-cost profile places the project in the bottom half of the cost curve of gold producers in Australia,” said Magnetic MD George Sakalidis.

“The PFS focuses on mining the indicated and inferred resources of Lady Julie North 4, Lady Julie Central and Hawks Nest 9. Lady Julie North 4 is by far the largest contributor to the study producing over 11.5-million tonne of ore during its operation.”

Sakalidis said that the project economics would be further refined in 2024, with scope to improve the economics of the project from boosting process recoveries and modifying processing scenarios.

There is also potential to further increase production and mine life estimates from the inclusion of resources drilled since the last update provided in November 2023.