Ore from Trident will be processed at the Plutonic plant
Gold miner Calayst Metals has unveiled a new development approach for the Trident deposit that more than halves preproduction capital and lowers the mine’s development risk.
At the centre of the new development strategy is a small openpit, in which the Trident underground portal will be established.
The Trident deposit has a maiden ore reserve estimate of 1.3-million tonnes at 4.5 g/t for 188 000 oz, including an openpit reserve estimate of 0.1-million tonnes at 1.4 g/t for 6 000 oz.
At A$3 200/oz gold prices, the openpit would generate net cashflow that could offset Trident’s preproduction capital costs and reduce the upfront cash drawdown to A$15-million, from A$36-million noted in the scoping study.
Surface mining is scheduled over a period of seven months, with the underground scheduled thereafter for 58 months.
The ore is to be trucked down the pre-existing haul road to the Plutonic ROM before processing through the existing Plutonic plant. The Plutonic plant has spare mill capacity to process Trident’s ore.
The Trident operation will use other shared infrastructure with the Plutonic operation, located about 25 km to the south-west – including administration, travel and accommodation services.
“The stable operating platform at Plutonic has afforded our team the time to optimise Trident’s development. As a result, we have seen the capital requirements for the development of this new underground mine reduce significantly,” said MD and CEO James Champion de Crespigny.
Last week, Catalyst announced that the capital cost to restart the Plutonic East underground mine was also reducing.