Vertex Minerals (ASX:VTX) is preparing the first gold concentrate for sale from the gravity gold plant at the Reward Gold Mine in New South Wales.
The gold is undergoing final concentration with coarse and fine gold evident. This concentrate has been produced from material processed during commissioning of the plant.
Vertex, which has a market capitalisation of $51.73 million, has the option to sell gold in concentrate or doré bars, by nature of the gravity process at the plant.
This comes at a time of near-record high gold prices, with the safehaven metal fetching around US$2,880 ($4,621) an ounce at the time of writing.
Executive Chairman Roger Jackson says the commissioning of the stockpile material has presented challenges with the way the old stockpile material breaks down and has initiated intermittent blockages.
“Our technical team and operators are solving the problem by minimising the fine material into the process and dropping out the fines from the process water,” Jackson says.
“We are very pleased to know the feed grade material sampled from the stockpiles are averaging 2.4 grams per tonne which is consistent with previous testwork and bulk sampling.
“It is important to note that our main game is mining the Reward gold mine material which is very high-grade and hasn’t been weathered like the stockpiles so does not present these processing hinderances.”
Technical Director Tully Richards adds that further testing of low-grade stockpile material, which will be fed into the gravity plant, continues to reflect earlier reported trenching and bulk sampling exercises.
Vertex notes commissioning of the gravity plant is ongoing with some further components being introduced to the plant to improve performance.
These include a pre-screening scalper which has been installed to reduce fines in the system and a centrifuge being installed to extract slimes and fines from the process water.
Fines are considered a consequence of surface stockpile weathering over time. This issue is only isolated to the surface stockpile material which is in the weathered zone. The Reward underground material will be fresh and have far less weathered material.
Vertex Minerals is an Australia-based gold explorer focused on the discovery and development of the next generation of multi-million-ounce gold deposits within New South Wales and the Western Australian Goldfields region.
Write to Aaliyah Rogan at Mining.com.au
Images: Vertex Minerals
