Name and Location
Mount Morgan gold/copper/pyrite project, Queensland, Australia.

Client
Carbine Resources.

Project Description
A scoping study completed on Mount Morgan has defined the potential for a long-life, low-cost operation.

The study defines a one-million-tonne-a-year operation over a minimum eight-year mine life. The nominated mine life only includes the processing of all Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant resources at the site and does not include the current exploration target stated at 32-million tonnes to 40-million tonnes grading 0.67 g/t to 0.79 g/t of gold and 0.11% to 0.19% copper.

The proposed operation will produce three separate saleable products – gold, copper and pyrite.

The proposed tailings operation is primarily about materials handling and minerals processing rather than physical mining activities.

The mineralised tailings comprise material that has been moved and/or treated during past operations and is now stockpiled in dumps or behind tailings retaining walls.

The scoping study proposes the use of dry mining using a loader and truck operation, providing a simple and cost-effective method for extracting and delivering feed material to the plant. Hydraulic mining will also be assessed during further studies.

A small amount of overburden is located in the Mundic Gully and Red Oxide areas, which will be progressively removed during mining operations. Other tailings require no overburden stripping.

The scoping study contemplates a one-million-tonne-a-year-capacity tailings processing plant. The plant will be operated 24 h/d for 90% of the time, accounting for availability and use.

Processing will comprise a polishing grind, with no crushing required, and classification from 150 μm to 75 μm, followed by a three-stage process to extract copper, gold and pyrite resources.

Copper will be initially recovered using the simple ion exchange and electrowinning of a leached liquor from the tailings slurry, producing on average 850 t/y of copper cathode. Gold will then be extracted from the copper-free slurry using a conventional carbon-in-leach circuit, producing an average of 36 000 oz/y. Pyrite concentrate, averaging 230 000 t/y, can then be recovered from the barren tailings using a conventional flotation circuit.

Metallurgical testwork to date on a composite of the Mundic tailings has shown the flowsheet is amenable to producing recoveries of 78% gold, 56% copper and 91% pyrite from the tailings material.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
Not stated.

Value
Capital costs for mine development have been estimated at $81.9-million, based on construction using new equipment, and includes allowances for all engineering, procurement, construction and management costs and excludes owner’s costs and contingencies. There is significant upside to reduce capital costs through the use of the Kundana carbon-in-pulp plant, which is being progressively acquired by Carbine from Norton Gold Fields.

Duration
Not stated.

Latest Developments
Carbine will now progress the completion of a drilling programme at the site prior to initiation of a preliminary feasibility study (PFS).

The PFS will be used to confirm and refine the value proposition of the project through the continued optimisation of the flowsheet and acquisition of more definitive equipment and reagent pricing.

Carbine is well advanced on many of the key inputs for the PFS and expects completion by the end of the second quarter of 2015.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Carbine Resources, tel +61 8 6142 0986, fax +61 8 9388 8824 or email carbine@carbineresources.com.au.