JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Western Australian mining company Panoramic Resources said on Monday that it had decided to run a dual initial public offering (IPO) and sales process for its Gum Creek gold project, near Wiluna, to unlock the project’s full value in the currently-buoyant gold sector.

A March scoping study estimated that Gum Creek, previously known as the Gidgee project, could deliver 290 000 oz/y over nearly six years for a price tag of A$62-million. The study was based on mining openpit resources from the Swan, Swift and Howards resources, and processing it through a new 800 000 t/y carbon-in-leach processing plant.

Panoramic said it believed the dual IPO/sale process was the best course of action to realise the full value of Gum Creek and that it would announce further details of the proposed IPO in due course.

Meanwhile, the company reported record monthly metal production at its Savannah nickel mine, in East Kimberley, which was transitioning to care and maintenance. The operation produced 1 263 t of contained nickel in April, surpassing the previous monthly production record set in December 2011. Production for May was estimated at 711 t of contained nickel.

Panoramic reported that the final shipment from the mine would depart in June. The company ceased concentrate production at Savannah on May 20, having depleted all stockpiles.

A further 70 people were made redundant last week and the balance of the workforce would be made redundant at the end of the site clean-up programme in mid to late June.

The company announced the closure of the Savannah mine in January, citing the continued decline of nickel prices. It was envisaged that the operation would restart when prices returned to a more sustainable level.  Panoramic stated that it was unable, at this stage, to provide guidance on the Australian dollar nickel price required for the restart of the Savannah operation.

Mining of the Savannah orebody, in future, would most likely be in conjunction with the development of the Savannah North project.

A feasibility study for the Savannah North project would be completed in the December quarter.