Matsa Resources has awarded a mining services contract at the Fortitude gold project in Western Australia to Quadrio Earthmoving.
The contract involves the trial mining activities at the site near Laverton in WA’s Goldfields region.
Quadrio will mobilise to site, including its infrastructure, equipment and personnel over the coming weeks before launching full production, according to Matsa.
“Matsa continues to finalise arrangements for commencement of trial mining,” the Perth-based company said in an ASX announcement.
Matsa unveiled results of a study of trial mining at Fortitude in February. The study showed a trial mine is economically viable with a cash surplus of $5.2 million over 12 months and a capital investment of $1.2 million.
A study into a large-scale operation at the Fortitude site is ongoing.
Matsa last week executed an ore purchase agreement with AngloGold Ashanti for the purchase of output from the Fortitude trial mine. AngloGold will treat the ore at its Sunrise Dam gold site.
The 3.8 million tonne per annum (Mtpa) mill at the Sunrise Dam mine is about 35kms from the Fortitude project. Matsa is responsible for mining and transporting the ore and AngloGold is responsible for milling the ore.
Matsa executive chairman Paul Poli said the agreement with AngloGold removed the final hurdle before it could launch trial mining at Fortitude.
“We look forward to working with AngloGold Ashanti during the term of this agreement, and hopefully beyond to a larger mine plan in the future,” Poli said.
Matsa received key approvals for the Fortitude project from the WA Government earlier this year, including the works approval from the Department of Environmental Regulation and approval of the project management plan from the Department of Mines and Petroleum.
The company acquired the Fortitude project during the second half of 2016.