KALGOORLIE (miningweekly.com) – Gold developer Pantoro in on track to start production at is 50%-held Noreseman gold project, in Western Australia, by the September quarter of this year.
Pantoro MD Paul Cmrlec told delegates at the Diggers and Dealers conference that construction of the A$62-million, one-million-tonne-a-year processing plant was nearing completion, with underground and openpit mining already under way.
The plant will initially be fed from ore from the Gladstone and Scotia mining centers, and from an underground operation at the OK mine. Over the initial seven-year mine life, Norseman is expected to produce 108 000 oz/y.
Cmrlec said on Monday that once Norseman is up and running, Pantoro would likely look at adding to its portfolio.
“Our absolute focus is to get Norseman up and running, and running properly in the near term. But after that, the intention is to add to the portfolio with additional production assets. There is real potential for expansion down at Norseman, but there is also real opportunity to join together with some other assets, and to create a larger, midtier company.”
On the sidelines of the conference, Cmrlec told Mining Weekly Online that once Norseman had become cash-flow positive, Pantoro would put serious effort into identifying potential acquisition opportunities in the region.
“We are open to straight-out purchases and development, but prefer something that’s in production already. It’s a long road to build a whole new operation, but we would also consider joining with another producer.
“We are pretty open at this stage, but we absolutely need to get Norseman up and running before we do any of that.”