A recently-released scoping study on Munda outlined a cashflow surplus of $76.9 million under a base-case scenario using an assumed gold price of $2600 per ounce, well below today’s spot price. The site sits just 3km south-west of Mincor Resources’ Widgiemooltha gold project, which has a mineral resource of 4.3 million tonnes at 2g/t tonne gold for 273,600 ounces.

Management says four contract mining companies have provided budget pricing estimates for mining, drill and blast services at Munda, which will contribute to a detailed assessment of mining to feasibility study level.

Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “The drilling program has provided guidance for mine planning, exactly what it was designed to do. Our next task is to further refine the resource model and re-optimise the model using recently obtained costings from reputable mining contractors and the rising gold price. This will generate a revised starter pit design for mining in late 2024 or early 2025.”

Since launching on the ASX back in February 2021, Auric has already produced more than 9700 ounces during two mining campaigns with joint venture partner BML Ventures at its Jeffreys Find mine near the Munda project, returning a total gold revenue last year of $29.28 million for the first stage of the two-year project.

The company has already kicked off a second stage of mining at Jeffreys Find with grade control drilling being completed in January and first ore processing scheduled for mid-late April.

Auric will be looking to replicate the success at Jeffrey’s Find at the larger Munda operation once mine design and scheduling for the site is finalised.

Production is expected to kick off late this year or early in 2025.

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