Blackham surges as first gold pour imminent
Blackham Resources shares have surged again with news that the first gold pour at the 100,000+ ounce-a-year Matilda gold project is just weeks away. The first gold bar at Matilda will mark the first major step in Blackham’s remarkable revival of the largely mothballed project in Wiluna.
In an update on its Matilda gold project, Blackham confirmed their remarkable and rapid revival of the Matilda Gold project was racing ahead.
Mining of ore in the M10 pit had commenced, and underground development of the high-grade Golden Age orebody was progressing well.
With work also largely complete on processing and mine infrastructure, including a 290-room camp, the first gold pour was now imminent and expected within three weeks.
Crushing circuit dry commissioning will commence this week and the mills are now mechanically complete with relining also to commence this week.
The gravity circuit is now onsite and the new tailings dam commissioning will take place this month.
Matilda is funded by a $23 million project finance facility from Orion and Blackham says it has lodged a drawdown notice for the final $8 million under the facility, which at this advanced stage of works suggests capital costs are well under control.
The news that Blackham was set to deliver on its ambitious plan to become a 100,000+ ounce-a-year gold producer lifted the company’s share price by 4.5 cents to close at $1.02.
Blackham’s share price has doubled in the past two months in line with the de-risking of the Matilda project as it hurtles towards production.
The mine is forecast to generate EBIDTA of more than $60 million per year for the first five years, making it one of the country’s lower cost producers.
Market pundits are also putting more faith in the company’s view that the current mine plan for Matilda is just the start for Blackham.
The Matilda Gold project resource recently increased to 5.1 million ounces of gold, with 48 million tonnes averaging 3.3 g/t gold. Studies are already underway to boost production to up to 230,000 ounces a year.
Blackham’s Matilda project consists of a dozen or so gold deposits within about 20km of the old Wiluna gold plant that was purchased by Blackham in March 2014.
The Matilda project sits within an 860 square kilometre package of tenements with historical production of 4.3 million ounces. With many areas still largely unexplored, it’s little surprise that Blackham’s crack exploration team is bullish about the prospect of yet more additions to the company’s Wiluna resource.