Name of the Project
Murchison gold project.

Location
Murchison region of Western Australia.

Project Owner/s
Meeka Gold.

Project Description
A scoping study envisages underground mining at the Andy Well deposit, in addition to openpit and underground mining at Turnberry.

The openpits are planned to be mined using conventional surface mining methods. Drill-and-blast will be used to break the rock, and standard truck-and-shovel mining methods to move the material out of the pit.

The Andy Well and Turnberry underground mines are planned to be developed with standard jumbo decline development practices. Longhole open stoping will be the primary means of production at both mines, with this method lending itself to the subvertical nature of the orebodies and having previously been successfully applied at Andy Well.

The study assumes that the existing Andy Well mill will be refitted with a replacement ball mill, gravity circuit and some components of the elution circuit, which were removed by the project vendors before Meeka Gold took ownership of the project.

A small proportion of ore produced from the project will be toll-processed through a third party-owned processing facility.

About 50 000 t/y of gold is expected to be produced over the project’s eight-year mine life.

About 72% of production will be sourced from measured (150 000 t) and indicated (7.8-million tonnes) resources grading 11.4 g/t gold and 2.7 g/t gold respectively. Inferred resources are estimated at 13.1-million tonnes grading 2.6 g/t gold.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project delivers a net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $124-million and an internal rate of return of 46%, with a payback of 23 months.

Capital Expenditure
Preproduction capital expenditure is estimated at $52-million.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The strong fundamentals of the project outlined by the scoping study have provided Meeka Gold with the confidence to advance the project until prefeasibility study level while continuing to drill test possible extensions of the existing 1.1-million-ounce mineral resource.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
Meeka Gold, tel +61 8 6388 2700 or email info@meekagold.com.au.