Great Boulder Resources (ASX:GBR) is planning discussions with potential milling partners for the Ironbark deposit in Western Australia, after releasing results from a Scoping Study.
Speaking to Mining.com.au, Managing Director Andrew Paterson says the “elephant in the room is a milling partner, and that’s the most important question to answer” before conducting a Prefeasibility Study.
Paterson adds that the company will speak with everyone in the region over the next few months to get a feel for spare capacity, timing, and cost.
In conjunction, Great Boulder, which has a market capitalisation of $58 million, is conducting various field studies aimed at delivering all the information needed for mining approvals.
“At the same time, we’ll be doing comprehensive metallurgical test work on Ironbark,” Paterson tells this news service.
“Some of those processes overlap – for example, drilling RC holes for waste rock and tailings characterisation will also deliver samples for met testing, and some diamond holes for geotechnical logging can also be designed to provide mineralised intersections for physical testing.”
Great Boulder has multiple options for developing the single pit operation at Ironbark.
Paterson says the simplest and least risky is to bring in a contracting company on a partnership basis to take care of operations.
“There are several examples of this in progress across Western Australia at the moment, but it’s also a fairly expensive option,” the Managing Director says.
“The other conventional approach is to build our own technical team to run and manage the mine, with contractors looking after the mining and haulage. We will be considering all options as we move forward.”
Last week, Great Boulder outlined the mining opportunity and value of the Side Well Gold Project via the Scoping Study results for Ironbark. The results highlight robust economics for a 31-month mine life, with a pre-tax net present value of $137 million and an internal rate of return of 152% at a spot gold price of $5,064 per ounce.
Ironbark’s production target totals 1.26 million tonnes @ 2 grams per tonne for 79,000 ounces of gold over two stages.
Paterson says the company deliberately chose Ironbark for the first study because it was “well drilled and represented a stand-alone mining opportunity”.
“In that sense it demonstrates the value of a small part of the overall project without placing a ceiling on the value of the other deposits,” he says.
“Ironbark represents an opportunity for mining and cashflow while we’re still progressing the rest of the project towards development. This is a potential game-changer in that it places Great Boulder on the cusp of transitioning from explorer to producer.”
The Ironbark deposit, located within the Side Well Gold Project, is a discovery east of the Loaded Dog prospect. Side Well covers a 28km strike extent of prospective, under-explored greenstone stratigraphy in the Meekatharra region.
Great Boulder Resources is a Western Australian gold and base metals explorer and developer primarily focused on defining the Mulga Bill deposit at Side Well. The company also explores for gold at the Whiteheads Project and for zinc and lead at the Wellington Project.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Great Boulder Resources
