Brightstar Resources marks major milestone with first gold pour at Menzies project
Brightstar Resources (ASX: BTR) has achieved a key milestone in its growth strategy with the pouring of the Selkirk Mining joint venture (JV)’s first gold bars at the Menzies gold project in Western Australia.
Brightstar’s managing director Alex Rovira said 38.7kg of gold doré was poured at the Gwalia gold plant near Leonora.
“Our JV partner BML Ventures has confirmed that all ore has been hauled to Gwalia, with project and fleet demobilisation both progressing on schedule.”
“The Selkirk Mining JV [has] been conducted in a safe, productive and professional manner with gold revenues to be split on a 50/50 basis after project cost reconciliations.”
“We anticipate several more gold pours over the next few weeks and look forward to updating the market with finalised cash flow updates.”
Maiden campaign completed
The successful gold pour follows the recent completion of a maiden mining campaign of Selkirk ore that commenced in November 2023.
Approximately 1,500 tonnes of Selkirk material, grading over 3.0 grams per tonne gold, was scheduled to be added to the known +5.0g/t material contained within the high-grade main lode at Menzies and trucked to the Gwalia plant.
By the end of February, ongoing haulage activities had seen 35,000t of ore already hauled and stockpiled to the surface run-of-mine pad at the Gwalia processing plant.
The JV with BML Ventures was created to exploit the Selkirk deposit’s estimated resource of 11,500 ounces at 2.15g/t gold.
Under that arrangement, BML is responsible for all capital costs, mining and haulage.
The JV also has a toll-treating agreement with St Barbara to process ore from Selkirk at Leonora, approximately 100km north of Menzies.
Menzies upside
The new production of Menzies gold is an important step in Brightstar’s plans to grow its WA assets, with funds received to help pay for a new Menzies pre-feasibility study that is currently underway as well as exploration of nearby targets.
While Menzies has historically produced 787,200oz of gold at 18.9g/t from intermittent production between 1895 and 1995, Brightstar believes significant exploration upside remains.
It says that despite a long and successful mining history, exploration drilling at Menzies has previously been focused on near mine exploration in and around the active mining centres or shallow exploration investigating for large, low-grade oxide targets.
The company has identified the Link Zone – where a maiden mineral resource of 21,000oz at 1.1g/t was unveiled last year – as just one area to follow up.
Brightstar is also actively assessing other opportunities at Menzies for similar mining JVs to the Selkirk arrangement to generate organic free cash flow to fund exploration and development activities.
The company will also use Menzies gold to help pay for the development of its Cork Tree Well project and the refurbishment and expansion of the mill at its Laverton gold development in WA.