PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Technical studies into ASX-listed Saracen Mineral Holding’s Carosue Dam gold project, in Western Australia, have confirmed that the project could deliver some 165 000 oz/y of gold at an all-in sustaining cost of around A$1 075/oz, over a five-year mine life.

MD Raleigh Finlayson said on Thursday that the studies had confirmed Saracen could meet the key performance targets contained in its five-year outlook for Carosue Dam.

“These studies underpin our five-year outlook for Carosue Dam. The results show that the five-year outlook is technically and operationally well founded, confirming Carosue Dam’s role in Saracen becoming a 300 000 oz/y producer with low costs, no debt and long life.”

The five-year plan would see production steadily increase from 150 000 oz/y to 170 000 oz/y through an organic pipeline of projects and a disciplined approach to project execution. All new mines at Carosue Dam would be funded internally from the mine’s operating cash flow.

The pipeline of underground and openpit projects would be systematically ranked, evaluated and derisked for further optimisation in and beyond the five-year plan. Large, low-grade stockpiles would also be formed to be used to top-up production to take advantage of excess mill capacity or alternatively use this capacity for ore purchase agreements if it delivered superior cash flows.

The five-year outlook was underpinned by the project’s current Joint Ore Reserves Committee-compliant reserve of 587 000 oz and a mineral resource of 4.1-million ounces.

The technical studies, which encompassed the geology, mining, engineering, processing and financial facets of Carosue Dam, indicated that the project offered low technical risks with production dominated by shallow, low-cost underground mines, with good metallurgical performance.

“We are confident we can deliver our five-year outlook, not only on the basis of the technical work done, to date, but also on the back of an excellent record, with our operations performing at or better than guidance on production and costs over the past three years,” Finlayson said.

“With development of our Thunderbox project running ahead of schedule and Carosue Dam’s outlook confirmed by these studies, it is clear we have a long, sustainable future as a significant Australian gold producer with strong cash flow, robust margins and a conservative balance sheet.”

Carosue Dam’s 2.4-million-tonne-a-year processing plant achieved record production during 2015, delivering 167 531 oz of gold and the project was expected to deliver between 150 000 oz and 160 000 oz for the full 2016.