Western Gold recovers up to 95.1% from Gold Duke project
Thu Nov 28 2024
Special Report: Western Gold Resources has reported recoveries of up to 95.1% from metallurgical testwork at its Gold Duke project in WA – highlighting potential for excellent gold recoveries through a conventional crush, grind, and Carbon In Leach (CIL) treatment.
The company recently released a scoping study for the project which included a Pre-tax NPV of approximately A$38m with an IRR of 617% at A$3,500 gold price, which is a tad conservative since the price is currently sitting around A$4,000.
The study also outlined a production target of 34,000oz per annum to generate estimated undiscounted accumulated cash surplus of $38.1m after paying all costs using an assumed Australian gold price of $3,500/oz.
Gold Duke currently has a resource of 2.95Mt grading 2.07g/t for 235,000oz of contained gold with higher confidence measured and indicated resources totalling 50,000oz.
The aim of this metallurgical program was to provide details across all optimised pit areas contained in the scoping study, with samples including material from the Golden Monarch, Eagle North and South and Emu prospects.
The cyanide leach test achieved 48-hour gold extractions of 93.3% and 95.1% for oxide ore, and gravity recoverable gold for oxide ores was between 4% and 15%.
The test work was undertaken by ALS Metallurgy in Balcatta, Western Australia, with other specialist companies to complete the test work on aspects including tailings geochemistry, tailings geotechnical studies and tailings thickening in the near-term.
Derisking project ahead of stage one production
The company is confident the results further de-risk the project as it progresses towards first stage production – which will target 178,000oz of contained gold, or 51% of the project’s total resource.
“These excellent metallurgical test work results are important because they confirm that the Gold Duke ore is amenable to a simple CIL processing route,” Western Gold Resources (ASX:WGR) managing director Warren Thorne said.
“They further de-risk what is an advanced gold project, providing more firm evidence that it is set for a strong future.
“The chosen samples represent resource grade and geographical spread across the deposit, and the test work objectives were professionally delivered by ALS.”
Mine development has been optimised to minimise up-front capital costs, using operational cash flow to self-fund mining and generating open pit ore feed to nearby processing facilities.
Plus, gold at the project is contained within shallow oxide ore and can be processed at a third-party toll-treatment processing facility.
WGR has provided pit samples from the Golden Monarch pit to a processing plant for metallurgical test work including bottle roll testing, and tailings characterisation.
The company will also undertake viscosity and oxygen uptake testwork and tailings characterisation work.
To derisk the project even further, RC resource, grade control, and sterilisation drilling across the Gold Duke project is planned.
Next steps
Next up, the company plans to make a request for pricing for the mining of the Gold Duke project. It’s also meanwhile continuing discussions with surrounding processing plants for toll treatment and ore purchase options.