Nexus Minerals (ASX:NXM) hopes to be starting gold production in Q2 2025 at the Pinnacles Joint Venture Project in Western Australia.
Speaking on the sidelines at the Noosa Mining Investor Conference, Managing Director Andy Tudor tells Mining.com.au the company plans to finish and submit the mine closure plan this quarter, with approvals expected in about three months.
“As long as you just tick all the boxes, then it’s a smooth sailing,” Tudor tells this news service.
“They green stamp it and send it back to you — that’s the way this one is looking.”
The Pinnacles Project is a JV between Nexus and Northern Star Resources (ASX:NSR), which holds 10%. Under the JV, Nexus will sell the ore to Northern Star under an existing sale and purchase agreement.
In October, this news service reported Nexus is also conducting a review of the underground mine study for the Pinnacles Project, in light of the project’s attributes and the current high gold prices — $3,968.81 per ounce.
The underground mine study update, which is expected to be finalised this quarter, will refine mine planning and improve cost estimates.
Nexus Minerals, which has a market capitalisation of $28.2 million, intends to prepare the company board for a final meeting on 4 December 2024 to receive the green light for operations.
“And then, our underground mining contractors, there are three of them at the moment that our COO is engaging with to try and get them to be good to go,” Tudor adds.
The Pinnacles Project has a combined mineral resource estimate of 609,000 tonnes at 4 grams per tonne (g/t) for 78,000 ounces of gold.
In conjunction, over the next 12 months, Nexus Minerals is planning to test all 18 targets within its Wallbrook Gold Project in Western Australia.
Earlier this week, the company revealed Wallbrook has “strong” regional exploration opportunities after receiving drilling results including 4m @ 6.85g/t gold and 4m @ 4.02g/t gold.
Tudor says the company is focused and committed to completing testing across all 18 targets before implementing the next steps.
“Each of them is fantastic, hence naming them as a discovery,” Tudor says.
“We’ll do some aircore drilling, flush out what is the full anomaly size. But at the same time, we want to make sure we complete all 18 before we actually rank them.
“We’ve got about 20 months because that is how long it’s going to take Pinnacles to see itself through, so once that starts rolling as well, we’ll see a lot more cashflow, which just goes straight back into the ground.”
Once target ranking is complete, Nexus, will bring in a reverse circulation rig and conduct drilling.
The Wallbrook Project covers 192km2 and is an amalgamation of tenements acquired from Newmont (ASX:NEM) and delisted company Saracen Minerals in 2018.
As of 30 September 2024, the company had $6.9 million cash and cash equivalents at hand, according to its latest quarterly report.
Nexus Minerals is a resources company with a portfolio of gold and copper projects across Australia. The company presented at the Noosa Mining Investor Conference yesterday (13 November) held at the Peppers Noosa Resort.
Mining.com.au is an official media partner for this year’s event.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Stock
