The Munda deposit, 98 km south of Kalgoorlie and within Auric’s greater Widgiemooltha gold project, was highlighted by the company in a scoping study last year that outlined plans to open pit mine between 112,000 and 129,000 ounces of gold during a mine life of three to five years before third-party toll treating at a local mill.

The total resource of 200,000 ounces, with grades above 2 grams per tonne as confirmed by recent grade-control drilling, is forecast to generate free surplus cash of $76.9 million using a gold price of $2600 per ounce. Today’s Australian gold price is more than $3621 an ounce.

Auric has also now completed a second successful mining campaign at its first producing gold mine, Jeffrey’s Find, near Norseman, generating a further $2 million in free surplus cash after the first campaign last year brought in $4.7 million.

In addition to Jeffrey’s Find and its Widgiemooltha operations, including the Munda deposit, Auric also holds the Spargoville project, 30km north of Widgiemooltha. Spargoville combines eight tenements and sits along strike from the Wattle Dam gold mine that produced 268,000 ounces of gold at a grade of 10g/t from 2006 to 2013 and is considered one of Australia’s highest-grade mines of that time.

With no debt and cash rolling in from its Norseman operations, Auric is setting its sights on becoming unique among junior gold companies by having two gold mines up and running within a two-year period. If successful, it would mark an extraordinary feat of planning, cash management and tenacity, potentially delivering up to $20 million of free surplus cash a year on assets that had, by and large, been left to the birds.

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