Horizon Minerals has generated another quarter of strong cash flows from gold sales, banking $23.3 million from 3689 ounces sold at an average realised price of A$6322 per ounce, while ending the period with a healthy $37.5 million cash balance and 14,300 ounces of contained gold in stockpiles.
The robust quarterly came amid record-high gold prices and featured the safe completion of open-pit mining at the company’s Boorara and Phillips Find open pits.
At Boorara, 15 kilometres east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, mining wrapped up this quarter with 208,000 tonnes extracted at 1.14 grams per tonne (g/t) gold.
Using Norton Gold Fields’ Paddington mill, the company treated 120,000 tonnes grading 1.09g/t gold for 3873 ounces of contained metal.
Over at Coolgardie’s Phillips Find, mining contributed 132,000 tonnes of ore at 1.74g/t gold. The company expects to finalise and receive revenue and JV distributions in the March quarter.
With $37.5 million in the bank, Horizon has the firepower to progress the refurbishment of its key Black Swan Processing Hub. In parallel, a pre-feasibility study is underway to boost plant capacity from 1.5 million tonnes to 2.2 million tonnes a year, a crucial step toward establishing a wholly owned processing base.
Detailed scheduling scenarios at 2.2 Mt/annum are now being drawn up, with completion targeted for the March quarter to enable direct transition into Front-End Engineering Design (FEED), including a tendered long-lead items list.
At the company’s Burbanks deposit further ultra-high-grade gold was intercepted as a part of Apollo’s ongoing two-stage 30,000-metre drilling program.
Phase 1 saw infill and extensional work from 25 holes completed during the December quarter, bringing two-thirds of the phase to completion.
Standout intercepts included 1m hit running a staggering at 1762 g/t gold from 259m, incorporating 0.3m at 5848 g/t gold in one diamond drilling hole where coarse visible gold appeared in quartz veins.
Additional strong zones featured 1.55 metres at 99.65 g/t gold from 336.3 metres, including 0.4 metres at 350 g/t gold, together with multiple intervals above 30 g/t gold at various depths.
Notably, the standout ultra-high-grade result fell outside the existing resource boundary in the Main Lode-Burbanks North gap, providing ample scope for resource expansion at the emerging deposit.
Planning and approvals for phase two extensional drilling - aimed at down-dip and along-strike extensions of known high-grade lodes - progressed during the quarter, with drilling commencing earlier this year.
Corporate moves also sharpened the focus on Horizon’s gold production agenda. Following the completion of the Gordon's Dam project acquisition from Yandal Resources, the company secured 34 tenements over 77 square kilometres close to Black Swan for $1.2 million cash and 37.6 million shares.
Non-core divestment plans have taken a significant step forward after Horizon agreed to sell its Lake Johnston nickel project to Forrestania Resources for $35 million, including $30 million in cash and $5 million in shares. The company banked a $10 million non-refundable deposit ahead of a March quarter completion.
The proceeds are set to help fund the refurbishment of the Black Swan plant, right as Horizon’s gold inventory swells to 1.8 million ounces across the Kalgoorlie–Coolgardie region. That growing resource base will feed into the company’s emerging hub-and-spoke strategy, with Black Swan locked in as the central processing hub by year’s end.
A surge in quarterly cash flow, a hefty stockpile of ready-to-sell ounces and expanding resources at Burbanks have sharpened Horizon’s pitch to join the ranks of Western Australia’s next independent mid-tier gold producers.
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By Andrew Todd
