Auric Mining (ASX: AWJ) has confirmed the Three Mile Hill plant at Coolgardie commenced processing high- and low-grade ore from the Jeffreys Find gold mine this week.
The company’s Kalgoorlie-based joint venture partner BML Ventures, who operates and manages the project, expects a minimum of 40,000 tonnes to be milled during the first campaign.
Once the gold is sold, BML subtracts all mining, haulage and milling costs and related expenses before evenly sharing the surplus cash proceeds with Auric.
‘Off and running’
Auric managing director Mark English said the company was “off and running” at Three Mile Hill.
“If BML can feed the mill, then the door is open to process 75,000t in this first campaign; however, our haulage has been slowed down by heavy rain,” he said.
“We are expecting further cash distributions in December and are in fast-forward mode to complete Jeffreys Find.”
Processing deal
Last month, BML and Auric finalised a toll milling deal with Three Mile Hill plant owner Focus Minerals (ASX: FML) to process up to an additional 120,000t of ore from Jeffreys Find.
The Three Mile Hill plant has a nameplate capacity to process approximately 4,000t of ore per day or 1.2Mtpa.
BML has already delivered 25,000t to Three Mile Hill, with a further 50,000t stockpiled on the run-of-mine pad at Jeffreys Find, awaiting haulage.
Greenfields contract
The ore to be processed at the Three Mile Hill plant is in addition to BML’s contract with the Greenfields mill, where an estimated 142,000t of Jeffreys Find ore will be processed starting this month.
Ore from the mine has been processed at Greenfields since 2023.
When milling concludes at Three Mile Hill and Greenfields in early 2025, approximately 420,000t are expected to have been processed for Stage 2 of the Jeffreys Find project, marking the completion of mining.
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