Kin Mining makes its move at Leonora Gold Project
THE INSIDE STORY: With little fanfare, Kin Mining (ASX: KIN) unobtrusively joined the ranks of Australian gold producers when it completed the first gold pour at the company’s 100 per cent-owned Leonora gold project (LGP) in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
Maintaining its dignity and poise the company calmly announced the pour, simply describing it as a “production milestone”, which it explained was part of a trial mining program at the Lewis deposit, located within the 193,000 ounce Cardinia oxide resource camp at the LGP.
Kin has since completed a further two gold pours at the Lakewood toll milling facility in Kalgoorlie from approximately 15,000 tonne of ore that was mined, trucked, and toll milled in Kalgoorlie.
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“Achieving that first gold pour said a lot about the company,” Kin Mining executive director Trevor Dixon told The Resources Roadhouse.
“It not only heralded Kin Mining as being a gold producer, it also demonstrated the company’s ability to take a trial project from design, permitting, mine development, through to the production of bullion.
“It has also further de-risked the LGP, taking a major step forward on the company’s path to commercial production.”
Soon after completing the maiden gold pour at the LGP, Kin announced the commencement of an updated Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS) for the project.
Kin had acquired the LGP from the administrators of Navigator Resources in 2014.
The LGP is a reasonably advanced project comprising three project areas with JORC-compliant resources totalling 722,000 ounces of gold.
The updates Kin is assembling to advance the PFS are based on a large amount of existing drilling data, JORC compliant resources, historical mine production data, and the PFS Navigator Resources completed back in March 2009.
Although Kin kept a relatively low profile throughout the recent downturn the industry suffered its way through, it also stoically maintained its focus on a strategy that has ultimately better positioned the company to capitalise on a more favourable environment for junior gold companies and a strengthening gold price.
“Acquiring a project such as the LGP, with a completed PFS included for good measure, we were basically catapulted towards development and we’re now in a position where we can deliver several key milestones in the near-term,” Dixon continued.
“Navigator did all the heavy lifting – the gold resources and the outstanding quality and quantity of the data has been hugely beneficial.”
KIN produced a one million tonnes per annum (1Mtpa) processing plant Scoping Study, demonstrating the LGP to be economically robust and technically viable with considerable upside.
Using Navigator’s historical data to develop a mine plan, the updated PFS envisages mines at Mertondale, Cardinia, Tonto-Eclipse and Raeside delivering ore to a centrally located standalone carbon-in-leach (CIL) gold treatment facility.
The study will evaluate a number of measures based on updated estimated capital and operating costs, including the establishment of a standalone +1Mtpa processing plant as well as a standalone 600,000 tonnes per annum processing plant setup for future expansion to +1Mtpa.
KIN anticipates completion of the PFS in the December 2016 quarter while running a number of studies related to the completion of the subsequent Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) at the same time.
Once it has determined the optimum production pathway, the company is targeting completion of the DFS and commencement of mining operations in late 2017.
Kin Mining NL (ASX: KIN)
…The Short Story
HEAD OFFICE
342 Scarborough Beach Rd
Osborne Park WA 6017
Ph: +61 (8) 9242 2227
Email: info@kinmining.com.au
Website: www.kinmining.com.au
DIRECTORS
Terry Grammer, Don Harper, Trevor Dixon, Fritz Fitton, Joe Graziano