Beacon Minerals Limited (ASX: BCN) has announced an encouraging update on the commissioning activities at the Company’s Jaurdi Processing Facility in WA.
The company reported that the plant is currently making a progression towards day and night shifts for 24‐hour production to occur this week. The Plant was operating on dayshift only for the past three weeks.
BCN also reported that the process plant throughput and recoveries are higher than the PFS study metrics. Beacon said that the mill throughputs are currently running 20% above PFS budget and reported that recoveries greater than 90% are being achieved, being 5% above the published PFS recovery figure.
Beacon reported that the first gold in Bullion production is expected to be early September 2019, with mining activities expected to recommence on 9 September 2019.
Jaurdi gold project
Beacon’s 100%-owned Jaurdi gold project is located 35 kilometres north west of Coolgardie in Western Australia. The Company had executed an exclusive option to purchase the Jaurdi Gold Project comprising Mining Lease M16/529 from Fenton and Martin Mining Developments Pty Ltd in January 2017.
PFS at Jaurdi
The completion of the PFS for the Jaurdi project in 2018 had demonstrated an economically and technically viable project with considerable upside.
The study had revealed that initial capital costs of $21.4 million would be needed to develop an initial five-year 500,000t per annum carbon-in leach operation, to generate a revenue of $208.5 million based on the base case gold price of A$1,650/oz.
Update on commissioning activities at Jaurdi
The Company is currently in the process of commissioning its gold processing facility at Jaurdi.
BCN reported that the 500,000 tpa capacity plant has been operating on dayshift only for the past three weeks, with a progression towards day and night shifts for 24‐hour production to occur this week.
The company also reported an improvement to the published PFS metrics with mill throughputs currently running 20% above the nominal nameplate capacity. Beacon said that gold recoveries of greater than 90% are being achieved.
The company reported that the mill head grade is in line with the mine stockpile grades mined from Panel 1. The Company currently has sufficient ore stockpiled for a further month of fine tuning of the plant.
BCN said that the previous pre‐strip mining of Panel 1 has exposed in excess of 400,000 tonnes of run of mine ore with mining expected to recommence in early September 2019.
The Company announced that it expects first gold in Bullion production to be early September 2019.
It may be noted that the today’s gold price in excess of AU$2,200/oz verses the gold price of $1,650 per ounce on which the PFS was based on.
Management comments
Beacon’s Managing Director Graham McGarry said: “The mill commissioning team have done an excellent job in getting the plant to its current status in such a short time.
“It is an exciting time for the Company with the mill performing at better than design throughput, increased mill recovery, a record Australian gold price and the first gold in Bullion production expected in early September 2019.”
