Mining and Heavy Industries

First gold poured at Gascoyne’s Dalgaranga

Gascoyne Resources is Australia’s newest gold producer, after it made its first gold pour at its Dalgaranga project in Western Australia’s Murchison region.

The miner announced on May 30 it had produced 9.55kg of gold in its first pour, with a second scheduled for the end of the week. Over the next two-to-three months, the Dalgaranga plant will be ramped up to nameplate processing capacity of 2.5 million tonnes per annum.

Dalgaranga contains a measured, indicated and inferred resource of 31.1 million tonnes at 1.3g/t, for 1.32 million ounces of contained gold.

Gascoyne’s managing director Mike Dunbar said to say he was pleased, “would be a massive understatement”.

“We have built a 100% owned new gold processing facility and associated infrastructure under budget and ahead of schedule, and now poured first gold,” he said.

“With the plant now operational, the aim for the next few months is to achieve consistent performance from all aspects of the process plant.”

Dalgaranga’s processing plant includes a primary crusher with design capacity for 450 tonnes per hour, which has operated above that at up to 500 tonnes per hour. Daily utilisation of the crusher has so far been 98%.

The plant’s SAG mill is averaging throughput of 271 tonnes per hour.

Gold recoveries at the plant are being recorded at up to 95%, with a month-to-date average of 83%.

Dalgaranga is Gascoyne’s flagship project, but the miner is also working on the Glenburgh Gold Project, further north, which has an indicated and inferred resource of 21.1 million tonnes at 1.5g/t, for 1 million ounces of gold.

“While the recent attention has been on delivery of the Dalgaranga Gold Project, the company remains focused on continuing the exploration success that has so far resulted in discovery of over 2 million ounces of gold since listing,” Dunbar said.

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