Ausmex Mining Group (ASX: AMG) has announced the application of a 225 Ha Mining Lease over the Golden Mile high-grade gold projects located within the Mt Freda Complex in QLD.
The company said that the Golden Mile Mining Lease Application is for mining only, with ore processing planned at the Great Australia Gold Carbon in Pulp (CIP) processing facility in Cloncurry.
The Golden Mile is an 80:20 JV project with Round Oak Minerals Pty Ltd, wherein Ausmex has the option to process gold ore at the processing facility in Cloncurry owned by Round Oak.
The Mt Freda ML2752 and the Golden Mile ML100201 projects are in close proximity to two, third party Gold CIP processing facilities.
Golden Mile projects
The Golden Mile is a joint venture (JV) with Ausmex (80%) and Round Oak Minerals Pty Ltd (20%).
Under the JV agreement, Ausmex has an option to process all gold ore won from Golden Mile at Round Oak’s 600,000 tonnes per annum processing plant, the Great Australia Mine Gold CIP processing facility in Cloncurry.
The Golden Mile consists of eight parallel north-south striking historical gold mines across a 2-kilometre-wide zone with a combined total strike length of more than 8 kilometres.
The important historic mines of the Golden Mile project includes the Comstock; the Falcon; Shamrock Reef; the Jewel Gold/Cobalt; Little Iron Duke Gold Mine; Iron Duke Mine; and the Weatherly Mine.
Mt Freda
The Mt Freda open cut was previously operated By Diversified Mineral Resources from 1987- 1991 producing approximately 30,000 Oz of gold per annum at an average grade of 4 g/t Au. Previous mining reports indicate recoveries of greater than 95% gold via CIP processing.
The current Mining Lease ML 2752 is 116 Ha and granted until 2028.
Resource definition drilling at Mt Freda
The Company reported that it is currently continuing gold resource definition drilling across the Mt Freda Complex, progressing towards a November 2019 Maiden JORC Resource estimate.
The Company said that it will commence a Mine Scoping Study for the Mt Freda Open Cut ML2752 in December 2019.
AMG reported that it is aiming to submit by March 2020 a Plan of Operation to recommence open cut mining activities at the Mt Freda ML2752.
Submission of mining application ML100201
AMG reported that it had submitted a 225 Ha Mining Lease application ML100201, for the Golden Mile, managed by Brisbane based consultants.
It may be noted that the application is only for mining, as the Company has the option to process all Golden Mile ore off site at the Great Australia 600 Ktpa gold CIP processing facility in Cloncurry.
AMG said that the consultants indicated an approximate 9-12 months approval time frame for the ML application. The consultants had reported that there is the potential to fast track the ML approval process as the Company does not plan to process ore on site.
Opportunity for multi pit mining hub facility
Currently, the Company holds 12 granted Mining Leases within the Cloncurry region with nine of these Mining Leases with a combined area of over 200 Ha.
All are within hauling distance to third party ore processing facilities at Lorena and the Great Australia, with a combined capacity of > 1 Mtpa.
AMG said that the combination of the Golden Mile ML application and the current Mt Freda Mining Leases provides the potential for the Company in the short term to schedule development of a multi pit, mining hub facility within hauling distance of Cloncurry CIP processing facilities.
What’s next?
The company reported that the independent laboratories are anticipated to process the current back log of drill hole assays anticipated over the next four to six weeks.
AMG said that it will continue to announce updates on the additional drilling results from both Cloncurry shallow, near-term production gold projects, and IOCG target drilling results as soon as the assays are processed.
Ausmex said that it will also announce updates on the Mining Lease application progress for the Golden Mile once it is made available.
