Gold surge revives interest in historic stockpiles for rapid returns
With gold prices passing record levels and forecast to continue their climb, local miners are turning their attention to historic stockpiles as an opportunity to provide quick, low-cost returns.
In the past week, two miners listed on the Australian Securities Exchange have announced plans to attack gold stockpiles located on their properties.
Mt Fisher mine
High-Tech Metals (ASX: HTM) has evaluated historic mining records and exploration results from historic low-grade stockpiles at its Mt Fisher mine near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The company is now planning to undertake reverse circulation drilling and a metallurgical test program to fully characterise the stockpiles.
This work will build on the company’s extensive surface sampling, which returned an average grade of 1.00 grams per tonne gold.
Exploration target
High-Tech estimates an exploration target for the stockpiles of between 155,000 and 175,000 tonnes at 0.9 to 1.1g/t, exclusive of the existing JORC mineral resource estimate of 3.52Mt at 1.65g/tfor 187,000 ounces of gold.
The company has now engaged several mining contractors to develop a processing solution for the stockpiles.
“The stockpiles at Mt Fisher potentially represent a quick gain to fund exploration across the company’s highly prospective projects,” chief executive officer Warren Thorne said.
Golden Crown program
Elsewhere, Mt Malcolm Mines (ASX: M2M) has identified good grades in its preliminary evaluation of existing stockpiles from the recent Golden Crown bulk sampling program.
The evaluation identified approximately 2,400 wet metric tonnes of stockpiled mineralised material, with an estimated average grade of 3g/t.
Grades from a total of 48 grab samples reached as much as 42.74g/t, showcasing the high-grade nature of the mineralisation.
Near-term opportunity
Mt Malcolm managing director Trevor Dixon said the stockpile material presented a near-term opportunity with potential for imminent cash flow.
“The stockpile sampling results have reinforced confidence in the high-grade mineralisation at Golden Crown,” Mr Dixon said.
“The estimated average grade of 3g/t gold for the current stockpiles aligns with expectations and supports the objectives of the bulk sampling program.”
“These encouraging results collectively highlight the potential to expand the known mineralised zones and advance the prospect towards commercial-scale production.”