JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed junior Kin Mining has produced the first ore from its Lewis openpit, located at the Leonora gold project, in Western Australia. This makes Kin one step closer to becoming a fully fledged gold producing company.
“This is a significant milestone in the company’s development,” said MD Trevor Dixon, adding that the team at Kin Mining had been working hard to deliver the first ore before the first half of the year.
Kin considered the trial operation at Lewis to be a low startup cost, opencut mining exercise that would effectively test a high-grade portion of the larger Bruno-Lewis Cardinia supergene resource to determine the economic viability of extraction and processing.
The Bruno-Lewis Cardinia supergene resource was currently 3.4-million tonnes at 1.3 g/t gold for 139 400 oz.
The aim of the Lewis openpit operation was to generate a cash-positive operation and to establish accurate mining costs, which would aid in the economic evaluation of the larger Cardinia supergene resource.
Kin also hoped to obtain accurate specific gravity data, which would be incorporated into the resource model. Further, it aimed to determine the metallurgical recovery rate and the vat leach recovery rates of the Cardinia ore.
Meanwhile, negotiations were under way for toll treatment of the first parcel of ore, which was considered the ideal strategy to reduce risk of the mining operation, while still enabling the company to move forward with its vat leach testwork.
“These are exciting times for Kin and the current gold price will have a positive effect on the economics of the operation,” said Dixon.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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