ASX-listed gold developer, Horizon Minerals has finalised its previously announced agreement to buy a 50 per cent interest in the high-grade Penny’s Find underground satellite gold deposit in WA’s Eastern Goldfields. The acquisition sees Horizon pay counterparty, Orminex a total consideration of $1.5 million cash and additionally Horizon will plough another $1 million into the ground to firm up a mineral resource estimate for the historic gold mine approximately 50 kilometres north-east of Kalgoorlie.
According to previous owner, Empire Resources, Penny’s Find hosts a remnant underground indicated and inferred resource of 248,000 tonnes of ore grading an impressive average of 7.04 grams per tonne for 56,000 ounces of contained gold.
Open-cut mining at Penny’s Find finished three years ago, with 18,350 ounces of gold recovered from the processing of 140,000 tonnes of ore that went an average grade of 4.5 g/t gold.
Orminex says the underground gold resource extends from the base of the completed open pit at approximately 85m depth to at least 250m below surface and remains open at depth. High-grade gold mineralisation at Penny’s Find occurs in quartz veins at the contact between sediments and the basalt.
According to the company, metallurgical test work has indicated the fresh mineralisation to be free milling, with a high gravity recoverable gold component and a total gold recovery that has historically exceeded 90 per cent.
Under the terms of the Penny’s Find deal, Perth-based Orminex, now a 50:50 joint venture partner in the project, will be free carried for the period it takes Horizon to spend the $1 million, after which time both parties will then contribute equally to funding Penny’s Find.
Horizon has already undertaken RC and diamond drilling at the project in order to infill several areas ahead of preparing an updated mineral resource estimate and updating the mine optimisation and design. Results from the drilling are expected in the June quarter of this year.
The Perth-based company hopes to release the revised resource and maiden ore reserves for Penny’s Find and make a development decision in the following quarter.
Importantly, the requisite mining and statutory consents and a toll milling arrangement are all in place for the restart of gold mining operations at Penny’s Find.
In the event the mine goes ahead, toll treatment of Penny’s Find ore is set to be carried out at the Lakewood processing plant, 7km west of Horizon’s core Boorara gold project about 10km east of Kalgoorlie.
Lakewood, owned by Golden Mile Milling, is where Horizon toll treated ore from three trial open pits at its Boorara project near Kalgoorlie last year.
Beyond the initial two or so years of toll treating that Horizon and Orminex are contemplating, Penny’s Find could even become a high-grade feeder zone for Horizon’s proposed new, stand-alone plant at Boorara where it envisages a central processing hub producing gold from several of its satellite deposits.
Horizon Minerals Managing Director, Jon Price said: “Penny’s Find is a quality, high-grade gold project with considerable work completed enabling an accelerated pathway to production with approvals and a toll milling agreement in place for the first phase of development.”
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By Matt Birney
