Laneway Resources Limited has announced that the final agreements have been put in place to enable the recommencement of mining operations in October at the Sherwood deposit, located within the Agate Creek Gold Project in North Queensland.
Material from Sherwood is planned to be treated at the Lorena Gold Mine Carbon in Leach (CIL) gold processing plant near Cloncurry in north-west Queensland, pursuant to a Toll Milling Agreement that has now been signed.
Laneway has advised that the final pit designs and mine plan have been completed, optimising ore timing and near term cashflows, and Maas Group have been appointed as the mining contractors.
The current campaign is targeting the mining of 43,000 tonnes of ore grading 6.5 grams per tonne (g/t) for 8,950 ounces (oz) in two stages: an initial 18,000 tonnes to be transported and processed by year-end followed by 25,000 tonnes of ore which will be stockpiled and scheduled for transportation and processing following the wet season.
Laneway anticipates significant positive near term cash flow with recoveries forecast at approximately 90 per cent and majority of the payment for gold produced from the initial stage to be received before year-end. This will allow Laneway to continue to pursue its corporate objectives, including ongoing exploration and appraisal of the broader Agate Creek Project without shareholder dilution.
Laneway advises that the potential for high-grade mining beyond the current campaign has been identified with Whittle pit optimisation process also generating a much larger Open Pit Shell containing 120,000 tonnes at 5.7 g/t Au for 22,000 oz Au with studies underway to facilitate required environmental approvals.
The company is continuing to evaluate and progress the development and planning for large scale mining activities at Agate Creek including on-site processing of the Mineral Resource of 471,000 ounces of gold that has been defined thus far.
Laneway’s Chairman, Stephen Bizzell said: “We are very pleased to have finalised the mine plan and contractual arrangements to enable mining of high-grade gold ore at Agate Creek to commence shortly.”
“We look forward to working with our mining contractor, Maas Group, and processing plant operator, Lorena Gold Mine on this next mining campaign.”
“With the current high Australian dollar gold prices, we expect very healthy cash generation from this mining campaign beginning in the December 2020 Quarter to support the self-funded ongoing exploitation of the Agate Creek Project,” Mr Bizzell said.