400T Of High-Grade Ore Available At Queensland Gold Mine
Laneway Resources Limited (ASX:LNY) has commenced processing the initial ore from the current mining campaign at the 100% owned Agate Creek gold mine at the Lorena Gold Mine CIL plant in North Queensland.
The first blast took place in late October 2020 at the Sherwood pit and since then over 90,000 BCM of waste has been removed from the pit and approximately 4,800 tonnes of high-grade ore (grading approximately six g/t gold) has been mined with 4,400t transported from Agate Creek prior to road closures caused by flooding from rainfall associated with ex-Tropical Cyclone Imogen. There is 400t of high-grade still at the mine ROM along with a further 7,000 tonnes of low-grade ore (grading approximately 2.5 g/t) also mined and stockpiled.
The first ore of the 4,400t high grade parcel has now begun to be processed at the Lorena Gold Mine Carbon in Leach (CIL) processing plant.
Following the current temporary suspension in mining it is expected that a single cut back design will be utilised to extract the remaining ore. Updated pit designs and scheduling will be undertaken to optimise the economic extraction of the remaining approximately 38,000 tonnes of ore that will be mined in this current campaign. During the current mining campaign Laneway plans to extract a total of 43,000t at 6.5g/t gold (~9,000oz gold) from Sherwood pit.
Chairman Stephen Bizzell said the ore now being processed at the Lorena Gold Mine CIL processing plant is being processed at a fixed price per tonne with the expectation this initial parcel will be completed processing over the next 10 days with gold recoveries forecast at >90%.
“We are pleased to have commenced the processing of the first batch of high- grade ore from the current mining campaign at the Lorena processing plant with material revenue to still be received this Quarter,” Mr Bizzell said.
“Whilst the recent heavy rainfall and flooding has temporarily suspended mining activities, the delays shouldn’t impact materially on the expected outcomes from the current mining campaign and the plans the company has for a busy 2021 as we focus in parallel on the planning, approvals and development of the larger volume of high grade ore encompassed by the larger Whittle pit shell, undertake drilling programmes targeting over 60 regional exploration targets and then turn our attention to options for onsite processing of the almost half a million ounces of gold resource already identified at Agate Creek.
“Beyond this current mining campaign, the potential for further near-term high-grade mining has also been identified with one of the larger Whittle pit optimisation runs generating a much larger pit shell containing 120,000 t of high grade material at 5.7 g/t Au for 22,000 oz Au.
“Mining of this larger pit shell will require amendments to the currently granted Environmental Authority conditions associated with Mining Lease 100030. Background environmental studies are being undertaken currently to allow for lodgement of the necessary EA amendments, intend to be lodged for approval during 2021.
“Other activities also continue to be progressed with a view towards the longer-term, large-scale development of the project. Infrastructure upgrades, monitoring, modelling and procedures have also been implemented to allow for the collection of baseline environmental data and studies, which will be utilised as part of the expansion of on-site activities as Laneway continues the development and planning for large scale mining activities, including on-site processing at the Agate Creek Project “
Laneway also continues to evaluate and progress the exploration of the broader mineralisation potential at Agate Creek. The multi-element spectral study is currently continuing onsite which will assist in prospect targeting and planning for the 2021 drilling campaigns is well advanced with numerous regional targets to be drilled this year.
Mr Bizzell said that given the current high gold price it is expected more of the current high grade Mineral Resource at Sherwood may be able to be incorporated into economic pit shells for future mining along with the expectation that further high grade Mineral Resources can be identified through carefully targeted future exploration drilling following the high grade Zones to depth.
The long-term aim for the Agate Creek mine is for conventional on-site processing of the larger commercial grade Mineral Resource of 471,000 ounces of gold that has been defined. Additional potential toll treatment of high-grade ore will continue to be targeted in the shorter term to provide additional cash flow to fund significant further exploration and development for the company whilst minimising the requirement for equity capital raisings.
