Expanding ore reserve to drive increase in | Australian Markets

A considerably expanded ore reserve on the King of the Hills open-pit gold mine north of Leonora will drive an increase in processing plant throughput and 18 more years of operations, its proprietor says.

Vault Minerals advised the Australian Securities Exchange this week it had boosted the mine’s ore reserve during the previous 12 months to 110 million tonnes at 0.62g/tonne for two.2 million ounces of gold.

The company stated this was an increase of 33 per cent, earlier than depletion of 97,065oz to April 30.

Vault stated this ore reserve growth was generated each within the prevailing pit and to the north as a end result of the decrease 0.23g/t cutoff grade, and demonstrated the King of the Hills mineralised system had the potential to generate elevated manufacturing

With that in thoughts, the company stated the stage two plant improve would now dovetail with stage one, delivering six million tonnes each year throughput charges from the fourth quarter of the following financial 12 months, and seven.5Mtpa from the second quarter of FY27.

Vault stated stage two capital expenditure could be $92 million, with each phases costing $172m to produce a 50 per cent increase in plant throughput, elevated gold restoration, and decrease unit prices.

The company stated this investment could be internally funded, with growing free money move anticipated from the step down in hedging volumes in the second half of FY26 and shutting of the hedge ebook in the primary quarter of FY27.

Vault stated gold manufacturing was anticipated to average 215,000oz during the following 5 years, peaking at 235,000oz on the completion of the stage two improve on a mill feed grade profile reflecting ore manufacturing from the three current mines — King of the Hills open pit, King of the Hills underground, and Darlot.

The company stated current underground drilling at Darlot had additionally elevated the boldness in mine-life extensions.

It stated this was by means of the conversion of inferred sources, and the “inherent leverage” of an established underground operation to the upper gold price surroundings — which had the potential to convert indicated sources to ore reserves in new areas of the mine.

Vault stated to accommodate the elevated necessities, the facility station could be upgraded to provide an extra 13 megawatts.

The company stated as a result of the prevailing tailings storage facility had capability for about 11 years on the 7.5Mtpa processing fee, an extra facility offering capability for 9 more years could be constructed north-east of the prevailing web site.

Vault stated given the elevated mill capability and scale of the ore reserve, it had scheduled to increase mining charges from the King of the Hills open pit and was evaluating the introduction of an different mining fleet to help larger mining charges and elevated productiveness.

The company stated the increase in processing capability dovetailed with the expiry of the present open-pit mining contract in December 2026.

It stated mining charges have been anticipated to increase by about 35 per cent, with average annual materials actions anticipated to be 14 million bank cubic metres throughout the life of the ore reserve.

Vault stated the upper mining charges would type the idea of the evaluation of open-pit working fashions, together with owner-operator or a new mining contract, effectively in advance of the expiry of the prevailing mining providers contract.

The company stated preliminary scheduling of the respective King of the Hills open-pit phases confirmed a 13-year open-pit, ore reserve-backed life-of-mine, with stockpile era to help a additional 5 years of processing after the completion of the stage 5 open pit in FY38.