In a move that will bring Horizon Minerals’ gold assets to the fore, the Perth-based company will divest its Nadine Well West Australian copper project to Cyprium Metals Limited for $1.5m in cash and Cyprium shares in a deal that will see Horizon retain exposure to the prospective copper-gold-PGM region in the Murchison district.
With the deal complete, Horizon will be able to fully focus on its flagship Boorara gold mine, located just 10km east of Kalgoorlie’s super pit.
Horizon’s inaugural parcel of ore will be toll treated at the nearby Lakewood mill with the company expecting to treat an initial 25,000 tonnes of ore from its Regal East and Regal West pits.
The fully funded stage 1 Boorara project development comprises the free milling of oxide and transitional material from mining at three starter pits, the Regal East, Regal West, and Crown Jewel. These pits comprise 159,000 tonnes of ore at a fully diluted grade of 1.86g/t gold for 8,700 ounces.
All-in sustaining costs are expected to be $1,640 to $1,690 per ounce, delivering Horizon a decent Australian dollar margin as the gold price continues to hover above $2500 mark.
Horizon previously indicated it expected to generate a healthy $7.1 million in free cash flow during the 2021 financial year.
Boorara currently has a contained gold resource estimate of over half a million ounces at a cut-off grade of 0.5g/t gold.
Horizon Managing Director, Jonathan Price said: “Horizon’s core focus remains firmly set on developing a stand-alone gold project in the Kalgoorlie and Coolgardie regions and this divestment supports this objective while retaining exposure to both Nanadie Well and Cyprium’s current copper projects in the Murchison as a substantial shareholder.”
The shedding of the non-core asset is consistent with the company’s strategy of creating a gold mining business with maiden production numbers from Boorara due later this month.
The deal has the twin benefit of retaining upside potential for Horizon shareholders flowing from the advancement of the copper assets under the stewardship of Cyprium by becoming a shareholder in the company at no ongoing cost to Horizon.
Price said: “Cyprium have an excellent technical team which is actively exploring in the region and we look forward to further success at Nanadie Well as we continue growing our gold business.”
Nadine Well is only 75km west of Cyprium’s Hollandaire copper deposit. Cyprium said the Nadine Well resource will contribute to a scoping study underpinned by a 2004 JORC resource at Hollandaire of about 2 million tonnes grading 1.9 per cent for 387,000 tonnes of copper.
The purchase of Nadine Well by Cyprium will add a JORC 2004 resource to its portfolio of 36.07Mt grading 0.42 per cent copper and 0.06 grams per tonne gold that contains 151,506 tonnes of copper and 74,233 ounces of gold.
With Horizon now free of non-core assets, transitioning to a pure gold mining business and first pours scheduled this month free cash flow should not be far away.
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By Matt Birney
