Final payday for Auric at Jeffreys Find gold mine in WA

Auric Mining is lining up one last lucrative swing of the bat at its Jeffreys Find gold mine near Norseman in Western Australia as the company gets set to pull up to $4.5m out of the very last 60,000 tonne batch of ore.

Marking the final act of an uber-successful two-year toll mining campaign, the last 60,000 tonne parcel of ore is now en route to the Three Mile Hill Mill in Coolgardie. Processing is scheduled to begin in the first week of July.

About 16,000 tonnes have already been stockpiled at the mill and the company says haulage is continuing daily to meet the full campaign target.

Auric is eyeing a final gold tally of around 2,750 ounces from the latest batch - a figure that would push total production from Jeffreys Find beyond the 30,000-ounce mark since toll mining began two years ago. According to management, most of the mining costs have already been paid, positioning this last campaign as a high-margin operation that could potentially generate between $7 million and $9 million in free cash, available to be split between Auric and its contract mining partner BML Ventures.

Under the 50:50 joint venture with Kalgoorlie-based BML, which operates and manages the mine, net proceeds from gold sales are shared equally once all direct costs are covered. Auric says it expects to pocket between $3.5 million and $4.5 million for itself from the final campaign to round out a total earn of more than $15 million from the project.

Auric will bank more than $15 million from mining at Jeffreys Find. It’s been a game changer for us as we transition to becoming a gold producer in our own right. These additional funds will be used to support the operations at Munda,

Rehabilitation and demobilisation activities are now underway at the mine to wrap up what the company says has been a textbook toll-treatment partnership.

The unique structure of the Jeffreys Find joint venture saw BML Ventures shoulder all mining, haulage, and processing costs upfront, allowing Auric to benefit from a clean, low-risk exposure to high-margin gold revenues.

Jeffreys Find has served as a stepping stone for Auric by delivering a significant injection of capital into its coffers that can be used to mine its much larger Munda deposit, also in WA. However, the exercise has also provided the company with a valuable lesson in mining techniques, which Auric can now apply as it winds up the partnership with BML and goes it alone at Munda just outside Widgiemooltha.

Auric officially kicked off production at Munda by shifting first ore from a starter pit a few days ago. The initial five-month mining campaign is set to deliver 6,100 ounces of gold at an all in sustaining cost of A$2,635 per ounce - well below today’s gold price of A$4950 per ounce.

The mine site is now fully operational with haul roads laid, ROM pads prepped and a full mining fleet in place. Auric made the strategic call to launch operations with a 125,000-tonne starter pit grading 1.8g/t gold with one eye on an even bigger prize. By shifting the overburden now while gold prices are sky-high, the company should slash future costs for the larger operation and build a buffer against price swings.

Apart from generating some valuable cashflows for the company, the starter pit will also provide useful insights into the larger deposit beneath, which should help Auric sharpen its strategy ahead of full-scale mining in 2026

Backed by a 145,000oz resource, a 2023 scoping study on Munda projected A$76.9M in surplus cash across its mine life using a very conservative A$2,600 per ounce gold price – almost half today’s actual gold price. The $6.5M pre-strip cost has been fully bankrolled from profits at Jeffreys Find.

With the final ore delivery at Jeffrey’s Find ticking closer and the mill primed for a final golden run, Auric is about to ring the till one last time on a project that has delivered in spades.

Jeffreys Find has been more than just a successful cash cow – it has been a financial springboard to bigger things and proof of concept for a company now shifting gears into self-driven gold production.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au