Legacy Minerals (ASX:LGM) has delivered a Scoping Study produced by Ausenco for the Mt Carrington Project in New South Wales, highlighting a 19-year mine life and ‘compelling’ financials.
The scoping study also details a production profile of 373,000 ounces of gold plus 9.91 million ounces of silver, with a 1-million-tonne-per-annum plant.
Managing Director Christopher Byrne says that the scoping study is a “pivotal milestone” for the company, outlining a long-life, development-ready mine plan.
“The project is underpinned by a shallow open-pit operation, a conventional, low-cost flotation flowsheet, and a brownfield side, critical infrastructure already in place, and a first quartile AISC of $1,061,” Byrne says.
“Importantly, the Scoping Study demonstrates that Mt Carrington is financially robust across a range of metal price assumptions. Even at the more conservative base case pricing, the project generates a pre-tax NPV7 of $542 million and an IRR of 32%, supporting the view that Mt Carrington can deliver value through market cycles.
“At Mt Carrington, we see multiple opportunities to significantly improve the value proposition demonstrated through this initial Scoping Study. These opportunities include near-mine resource extensions, updated metallurgical recoveries, increased plant throughput, and the potential addition of zinc and copper as saleable products within the project’s broader mineralised system.
“Together with near-mine exploration at the Emu, Battery, and Mascotte Prospects, these factors support our view that Mt Carrington can be a key driver of future value for Legacy Minerals shareholders.”
Scoping Study positions Mt Carrington as development-ready
The study presents two pricing scenarios, with the spot case assuming $6,500 per ounce of gold and $105 per ounce of silver, delivering a pre-tax net present value at a 7% discount rate of $716 million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 38%.
The base case uses $5,950 per ounce of gold and $85 per ounce of silver, generating a pre-tax net present value at a 7% discount of $542 million and an IRR of 32%.
All-in sustaining costs reach $1,061 per ounce of gold under the spot case, positioning the project in the first quartile globally. The operation targets peak annual production of 31,934 ounces of gold and 845,355 ounces of silver, with average output of 21,420 ounces of gold and 568,707 ounces of silver.
The mine plan outlines conventional open-pit mining across eight shallow pits within a single mining area. Mining consultancy firm Mining Plus designed pit optimisation using a combined cut-off grade of 0.57 grams per tonne gold equivalent and 50g/t silver equivalent, resulting in 17.04 million tonnes of plant feed at 0.87g/t gold and 21.45g/t silver.
The company plans targeted resource conversion drilling over stage one and stage two pit footprints to upgrade inferred resources to indicated ahead of a Prefeasibility Study. Additional work includes metallurgical testwork, geotechnical drilling, and hydrology studies.
Legacy Minerals holds $8 million in cash and says it is fully funded for future study work.
Legacy Minerals is a gold, silver, copper, and base metals exploration company, with a focus on projects in New South Wales.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Legacy Minerals
