ASX-listed Macmahon Underground has been engaged to punch a 3.5km exploration decline into the Groundrush deposit at the Central Tanami gold project in Australia’s Northern Territory after MGX Resources recently wrapped up its A$50 million acquisition of Northern Star Resources’ 50% stake in the project.
MGX and equal joint venture partner Tanami Gold want to convert about 430,000 ounces of inferred gold resources below the abandoned Groundrush openpit to an indicated resource with more than 30,000m of underground drilling. About 14 months of exploration decline development costing circa-$38 million is expected to start in the September quarter this year.
A 1.4km-long openpit yielded more than 600,000oz at an average four grams per tonne between 2001 and 2005 for former owner Newmont Mining. All up more than 2Moz of gold have been produced from tenements around Central Tanami’s 1.2Mtpa carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing plant, which has been idle since 2005.
MGX and Tanami have reported a resource of 11 million tonnes at 3.3gpt, or about 1.2Moz, for Groundrush.
“We are pleased to have selected Macmahon, a tier one mining contractor, as the preferred supplier of underground mining services for the Groundrush exploration decline,” MGX CEO Peter Kerr said.
“We are working closely with our joint venture partner to accelerate the project towards a formal development decision in this strong gold market.”
Macmahon CEO Michael Finnegan said: “With the completion of the exploration decline and resource definition drilling we anticipate production mining to commence shortly afterwards, hopefully generating new growth opportunities for our partnership.”
