Calidus’ Pilbara gold mine gets nod from EPA

With its market cap now sitting comfortably over $100m, the hurdles are starting to drop now as Calidus Resources races towards gold production in the Pilbara. Arguably the most difficult hurdle to navigate on the pathway to production is EPA approval and Calidus now has this important one behind it at the Warrawoona gold project after getting the nod from the EPA. 

The Environmental Protection Authority has recommended to the Minister that the Government give the go-ahead for Warrawoona and the final project approval now rests with the Minister for Environment. 

The EPA recommendation is a key milestone for Calidus who has also just secured a general purpose lease covering all the required tenure for the operational infrastructure, including the process plant. 

Calidus Managing Director, Dave Reeves said: “With all tenure now in place and the Feasibility Study on track for completion in the coming quarter, Warrawoona is rapidly moving towards development.” 

The Perth based company also said a mineral resource and reserve update is imminent and the results will feed into its feasibility study, which will no doubt be highly anticipated by the market. 

Meanwhile, Calidus has an RC rig back on site drilling pre-collars for the diamond rig to target areas below the existing Klondyke resource. The program will target potentially mineralised areas to about 450m depth. 

Calidus’ maiden ore reserve within the proposed Klondyke open pit and underground operation was 8.9 million tonnes grading 1.5 grams per tonne gold for just under 420,000 ounces. If the company can show the orebody extends at depth, the economics of the project will probably change too. 

Warrawoona contains an impressive resource of 1.25m ounces and a 2019 pre-feasibility study shows the project to be one of the highest margin, undeveloped gold projects in Australia. 

Last year’s PFS demonstrated an operation that could produce 100,000 ounces of gold per annum with a remarkably low all in sustaining cost of just AUD$1,159 per ounce. 

The project itself is host to a total mineral resource of 1,248,000 ounces grading 1.83g/t gold over a remarkable 5km of strike and with a resource update in the works, expect those numbers to move upwards. 

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