Gascoyne extends Dalgaranga mine life

PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold developer Gascoyne Resources has added ounces to its Dalgaranga project, in Western Australia, which could extend gold production to beyond the planned six years.

The ASX-listed miner on Thursday announced that the mine plan for the Dalgaranga project had been updated to include the recently discovered Sly Fox deposit, as well as a redesign of the Gileys pit and an update of the Golden Wings mineral resource.

The new mine plan now incorporated about 652 000 oz of contained gold, up from the 592 500 oz considered in Dalgaranga’s feasibility study.

Gascoyne pointed out that the new mine plan included an increase of about one-million tonnes of ore over the previous mine plan, which would allow the company to use the excess plant capacity for the first two years of production, while also deferring waste movement and extending the mine life to beyond six years.

The deferral of waste movement would remove about A$20-million of cost out of the first two years of operation, while yearly production will remain effectively unchanged.

Gascoyne is in the midst of constructing a 2.5-million-tonne-a-year processing plant at Dalgaranga, with mining expected to start in March next year. The project is expected to produce about 100 000 oz/y of gold.

The company on Thursday told shareholders that it had fast-tracked development activities for the upper portions of the Sly Fox discovery to maximise plant throughput, following recognition that the 2.5-million-tonne-a-year plant had the capacity to treat up to 3-million tonnes a year of oxide ore.