Horizon Minerals expects first gold from Boorara in July
At a gold price of A$2,600/oz, Horizon Minerals predicts it will generate A$7.1 million in free cash flow in FY 2021 from Boorara.
Horizon Minerals (ASX: HRZ) is about to kick-off the first stage of its Boorara mine with first gold anticipated in July.
The company’s board has approved the first stage development of the mine, with all regulatory approvals in place to begin operations in addition to drawing down a $4 million working capital facility.
Hampton Transport Services has been granted the open pit mining and haulage contract to extract 520,000 billion cubic metres over a six month mine life, with ore mined estimated to be 159,000 tonnes at 1.86 grams per tonne gold.
Ore will then be hauled on existing roads to the third party Lakewood Mill with the first processing campaign scheduled for July.
“The commencement of mining at Boorara is a significant milestone for the company enabling gold production and cash generation in 2020 at a time of record high Australian dollar gold prices,” Horizon managing director Jon Price said.
“We welcome our local mining partners Hampton and the Lakewood processing team who have been extremely proactive in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring strict safety and health guidelines are observed across the operation,” he added.
Gold production from Boorara
According to Horizon, Boorara ore will be processed in monthly campaigns at Lakewood.
The company expects gold production to reach between 8,500 ounces and 9,000oz with an average recovery of 91.5% and all in costs using the toll milling ranging between A$1,600-1,690/oz.
With the current gold price around A$2,600/oz, the Boorara stage one operation is forecast to generate A$7.1 million in free cash flow for Horizon during the 2021 financial year.
Boorara gold project
Boorara is only 10km east of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and hosts a resource of 507,000oz contained gold.
Almost 2km of strike has been identified at Boorara which remains open to the north, south and at depth.
Horizon expects to release an updated resource for the project in the September quarter.
The company believes the project has multi-million ounce potential which it will target through extension drilling for both open pit and underground operations.