It’s true – there’s gold in them thar hills, at least in the hills around Cloncurry.
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Malachite Resources Limited has told the Australian Stock Exchange the drilling recently completed at the Lorena Gold Project has intersected some significant results.
Malachite has also produced its first gold pour from the Mine situated 15km east of Cloncurry.
The majority of the gold pour was obtained from lower grade ore that had been processed in the first place as the plant processes and recoveries were being optimised in order to achieve steady state production.
Malachite said the drilling at the project site now warrants further exploration to potentially increase the resources at depth.
The Lorena Gold Project, a joint venture with Chinova Resources and BIM Gold Pty Ltd, has commenced production and it is expected that it will produce around 30,000 to 35,000 ounces of recovered gold in the eighteen months of production.
It is an open cut operation at a forecast operating cost of around $1000 per gold ounce and Malachite has a 55% interest in the JV following the commissioning of the processing plant.
Malachite told the ASX the JV partners undertook a reverse circulation drilling program to maximise gold production from the initial open cut operation.
The program completed 17 holes for a total of 2190m of reverse circulation drilling and drilling was designed to test conceptual targets for gold mineralisation in shears parallel to the lode currently being mined.
A secondary aim was to provide additional information to update the project reserve block model in order to review the final pit design prior to the completion of mining of the open cut.
Assays have been received for the first ten holes and the reported gold intersection is around15m to 20m underneath the bottom of the current open cut design.
Malachite aims to improve the supply of ore to the processing plant with the recent removal of waste ore from the open cut.
The mining of ore is also set to ensure full commissioning of the processing plant.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
