Horizon Minerals has revealed fresh mineral resource estimates for its Golden Ridge North and Monument gold prospects in Western Australia’s Goldfields to take its total resource to 23.22 million tonnes at 1.69 grams per tonne gold for 1.26 million ounces.
The company’s Monument gold prospect is part of its Cannon project group and sits less than 1km from its proposed Cannon underground project, 20km south-east of Kalgoorlie. The prospect’s new JORC-compliant resource is 395,000 tonnes going 1.97g/t gold for 25,000 ounces at a 0.8g/t gold cut-off grade.
The Golden Ridge North prospect has been estimated to have a mineral resource of 1.42 million tonnes grading 1.23g/t gold for 57,000 ounces at the same cut-off. Golden Ridge North butts up against the historical Golden Ridge open-pit mine, 20km to the south-east of Kalgoorlie.
The company has computed its latest total resource estimate by adding the new numbers from Golden Ridge North and Monument and subtracting figures from its now former Gunga West gold project, which it recently sold to FMR Investments. Management says further drilling is now underway at its Monument prospect, while both deposits will soon be the subject of scoping studies.
The explorer also believes, after sampling at Golden Ridge, that a small-scale treatment opportunity exists because of the many historical stockpiles, truck dumps and bunds left behind from the previous open-cut mining operation. The sampling returned economic grades of greater than 1g/t.
Horizon Minerals chief executive officer Grant Haywood said: “These projects provide Horizon with additional potential for satellite ore sources to complement the underground production at the Cannon gold project due to their proximity, enabling synergies with shared infrastructure and personnel. We shall immediately commence the study work to bring these maiden resources into an Ore Reserve and progress approvals in parallel, as we build our production profile to reach our ultimate goal of becoming an emerging mid-tier gold business.”
Golden Ridge North was acquired, in addition to the 31,000-ounce Golden Ridge deposit, from Northern Star Resources in 2019. Monument, which is yet to see any mining, was part of the Cannon-Glandore package that was bought from Aurenne Group Holdings in October, 2021.
Prior to Horizon snapping up Cannon, the deposit had been mined as an open pit up until 2017, producing 55,143 ounces of gold at a grade of 2.98g/t. The company has a significant 1100-square-kilometre tenement position centred around the WA Goldfields hub of Kalgoorlie.
The Cannon mine is fully-permitted, while final mining contract and joint venture negotiations are in progress. Horizon has agreed to a toll-milling allocation at the one-million-tonne per annum Greenfields Mill, 3km east of Coolgardie.
A prefeasibility study into the development of an underground operation at Cannon, tabled in March last year, demonstrated positive economic results under a contract mining and toll-milling model. The study found the operation could generate a net free cash flow of $10.1 million in a 16-month mine life at an Australian gold price of $2600 per ounce, while requiring a capital investment of just $4.3 million.
Gold, which is currently trading at US$1980 (AU$2917), has enjoyed a good month and is again pushing to crash through the US$2000 (AU$2944) barrier.
While there has never been a bad time to find more gold, with its price seeming to be opening its shoulders in the current economic climes, it would appear to be adding to Horizon’s numbers … and that is a practice the company hopes will become a habit.
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By Steve Kaless
