Mining starts at Fender
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining operations have started at ASX-listed Westgold Resource’s Fender project, its newest underground mine at the Cue operation, in Western Australia.
Westgold said on Wednesday that Fender had the advantage of being able to leverage off the company’s substantial investment in infrastructure, fleet and support services associated with the nearby Big Bell mine, and would share facilities, manning and equipment with Big Bell, reducing its unit costs of operation.
The current Fender mine plan is limited to the area of the resource which is well defined by grade control drilling. This comprises an initial 150 000 t of mineable inventory, which comes at an all-in cost of less than A$2 050/oz, offering a near A$580/oz margin at the current spot gold price, generating A$4-million in cash.
Fender is expected to produce 24 000 oz of gold in the 2023 financial year, at an all-in sustaining cost of around A$1 900/oz.
“Westgold is focussed on leveraging existing capital, driving our cost base down and profitability up in 2023,” said Westgold MD Wayne Bramwell.
“Fender achieves these objectives by utilising a simple mining method, and with high confidence in the geological model, execution risk is low. Bringing Fender online also gives Westgold optionality to alter the mix of our production sources to better maximise profit, without impacting group production or our long-term scale objectives.
“This mine can grow, and we are confident that with additional resource drilling over the next 12 to 18 months Fender can contribute more to our growth aspirations,” he added.
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