PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner St Barbara will undertake a feasibility study (FS) into a sulphide project at its Simberi operation, in Papua New Guinea, after a prefeasibility study (PFS) proved positive.
The PFS, which was completed in March this year, built on a 2016 PFS, and showed that the sulphide project could extend the mine life at Simberi until 2035.
The study was scoped to focus on low capital expenditure (capex) solutions using existing infrastructure. The PFS estimated that some 1.8-million ounces of gold could be produced from the sulphide operation over a mine life of 13 years, with capex estimated at between $130-million and $150-million, while the all-in sustaining cost has been estimated at $920/oz.
The current mine plan anticipated that oxide ore processing at the mill would continue until 2022.
The FS and the corresponding environmental and social impact assessments will be completed in December this year, at a cost of around A$5.4-million, St Barbara said on Tuesday, with the study anticipating a two-year construction window, starting in the third quarter of 2021.
To minimise interruption to production, a decision to proceed on the sulphide project is expected by the third quarter of next year.