PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed gold explorer Integra Mining has entered into a forward sales agreement, covering 91 952 oz of gold production from its Randalls gold project, in Western Australia.
The gold was sold at a price of A$1 359/oz, and covers two years of early production at the Randalls mine.
The total ounces forward sold represented less than one-third of the phase one ore reserves of the Randalls project, the company said on Monday. Of the total ounces forward sold, 57 043 oz, or 62%, were for delivvertical shaft impact crusher wear theory researchery in the first year of the contracted period.
“The forward sales agreement provides Integra with certainty of attaining a very attractive gold price, with an expected margin of almost A$gold mining crushing equipment800/oz, for a proportion of early production during which the company is paying down the project finance facility,” it said in a statement.
On the phase-one base-case production, and at current gold prices, the Randalls project woultubular grinding milld generate an estimated A$50-million of operating profit a year.
The first phase of the project is expected to produce an average of 75 000 oz/y for the first four years of mining of two openpits at an average grade of 3,1 g/t gold.
The capital cost for project development has been estimated to be A$64-million.
Integra has allowed excess funding of the Randalls project to accelerate evaluation of an early start of underground mining at the Maxwells, Santa and Cock-Eyed Bob banded-iron formation hosted gold deposits with a target of increasing project gold production to about 100 000 oz/y without a processing facility expansion, and then to more than 140 000 oz/y with a processing facility upgrade to 1,2-million tons a year.
The potential underground developments and processing facility upgrade would be fully funded through existing cash reserves and project cash flow.
Project commissioning and first gold production is expected to be achieved in September 2010.
The Randalls project development is only the second integrated mining and processing new gold mine development based on a new gold discovery in Australia in the past ten years.