Batavia looks to Gullewa

The share price of mining junior Batavia Mining Ltd has more than doubled in the first few days of 2006 on a 140 per cent gold resource upgrade that could bring its Gullewa copper gold project in Western Australia back in production within a year.

The new resource estimate for Batavia’s Deflector deposit contains a gold equivalent 775,000 ounces, well up on the previous 322,000 ounce calculation made a year ago.

Batavia managing director Greg Durack told WA Business News that, if the mining, metallurgical and economic studies stacked up, “we could be in production in early 2007”.

The Gullewa project, 200 kilometres east of Geraldton, has a number of things going for it at present, including record gold and copper prices, and an existing 40-person camp and gold treatment plant on site.

Mr Durack said the plant would require some modification, including the addition of a flotation plant behind the crushing circuit to produce copper/gold concentrate from an ore throughput of around 200,000 tonnes a year.

It’s expected initial production will be from an open pit, possibly down to 70 metres vertical, followed by underground mining to 300m vertical.

“The recently completed drill program successfully tested resource extensions to 300 metres vertical depth with the west and central lodes still open at depth,” Mr Durack told WA Business News.

Batavia was formed in mid 2003 using the Menzies Gold Ltd shell after that company went into voluntary administration earlier that year.

It was Menzies that most recently mined the deposit until the high copper content Deflector ore became its only feed source and could not be economically treated by the current plant, hence the additional floatation circuit requirement.

Batavia also has a two-year, $2 million exploration program in place for its recently acquired portfolio of uranium projects in the Northern Territory.

Shares in Batavia have risen from around 3.5 cents at the end of December to current levels around 7.5c.