Millennium Minerals Limited has declared a 70 per cent increase in Ore Reserves at the Nullagine Gold Project in Western Australia.
The Ore Reserves (as of 31 December 2018) increased to 375,300 ounces, from the 221,600 ounces previously recorded on 31 December 2017.
Presently, the project’s Mineral Resource stands at 22.9 million tonnes for 1.6 grams per tonne for 1.16 million ounces.
The increase in Ore Reserves is a result of recent successful drilling programs, as well as the conversion of several Mineral Resource estimates to Ore Reserves.
The updated Ore Reserve delivers mine life visibility nearing four years (based on Millennium’s targeted annual production rate of approximately 100,00 ozpa).
Moving forward, Millennium’s objective is to further increase its Ore Reserves base to deliver a five year plus mine life and is aiming to deliver near-term Ore Reserve growth through the conversion of additional sulphide Mineral Resources and through further exploration success.
Millennium has stated that they will be proceeding with a two-stage expansion of the Nullagine processing plant, with the Stage 1 upgrade comprising the addition of in-mill oxidation (INOX) and Stage 2 comprising the addition of Millennium’s patented pressurised in-mill oxidation process (PINOX).
The Stage 1 INOX upgrade is expected to be completed for a total capital cost of approximately $15 million, with commission anticipated for April 2019.
The Stage 2 PINOX upgrade is expected to be completed in 2020 for a total capital cost of $5 million.
Millennium Chief Executive, Peter Cash, commented that the company’s exploration and growth strategies were successfully driving mine life growth at Nullagine.
“This has been the result of our highly successful drilling programs, coupled with the very positive outcomes being delivered by our sulphide metallurgical work, which has confirmed strong gold recoveries from our low-cost, two-stage plant upgrade,” he said.
“This puts us on track to develop our second underground mine at Nullagine at the Golden Gate Mining Centre later this year and potentially opens up further significant parts of our Mineral Resource inventory for conversion to Ore Reserves.”
“The ability to cost-effectively process all ore types at Nullagine has also dramatically expanded our exploration scope into under-explored areas which have been virtually untouched in years – an exciting prospect for our exploration team,” Mr Cash commented.
More information on this project can be found here.