Horizon ahead of schedule as Boorara bounty beckons

ASX-listed Horizon Minerals is ahead of schedule at its Boorara gold mine just 10km east of Kalgoorlie’s super pit with 22 per cent more dirt already moved than originally contemplated at this point in time. An inaugural parcel of ore is currently being hauled to the nearby Lakewood mill with first processing to occur on July 13th.

Horizon is expecting to produce an initial 25,000 tonnes of gold-bearing ore from its Regal East and Regal West pits to get the party started and experienced local contractor Hamptons Transport will do the hauling.

In what looks to be a market trend lately, Horizon has chosen the contract mining and toll treatment route to generate some early cash flows at a time of stellar gold prices, with Boorara’s stage-one gold mining operation now fully funded.

All-in sustaining costs are expected to be A$1,640 – A$1,690 per ounce, delivering Horizon a healthy Australian dollar margin as the gold price continues to hold above its stellar A$2500 mark.

Horizon said earlier it expected to generate a healthy A$7.1 million in free cash flow during the 2021 financial year, based on a gold price of A$2,600/oz.

And just six weeks after initially turning the first sod the Jon Price led company is ahead of its mine plan with total ore mined to date of 42,000 tonnes grading 1.4 g/t gold which Horizon said was in line with its reserve model for the Regal open pit. Stage 1 comprises of the free milling of oxide and transitional material from mining at three starter pits; Regal East, Regal West and Crown Jewel.

Horizon said both Regal pits are being mined simultaneously to provide efficiencies around blasting and extraction, with the Crown Jewel pit to commence operations in the September quarter.

With the company’s phase one feasibility study for the Boorara deposit only hitting the streets in February this year, cash should start hitting the Horizon till from July.

Importantly, the technical team at the project will monitor the grade control data that will be fed into a proposed full-scale mining DFS, significantly de-risking any future full-scale start-up operation.

Boorara currently has a contained gold resource estimate of over half a million ounces at a cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t gold.

Managing Director, Jon Price said: “The site operations team and our contracting partners have done an excellent job with ore delivery ahead of schedule and grade meeting expectations. With first gold production and revenue expected in July, we look forward to completing this first stage of Boorara while progressing the Feasibility Study and re-commencing the large-scale resource growth and new discovery drilling programs.”

Price and his team at Horizon are now gold miners as promised and the timing couldn’t better as the gold price continues to provide an element of blue sky over the industry.

Is your ASX listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@businessnews.com.au