New Murchison Gold (NMG) has broken ground at its Crown Prince project near Meekatharra in WA, with a first blast completed on June 30.
Two further blasts are scheduled for the coming week. This will build up material for load and haul operations to begin shortly after, with mining to begin in early August.
Material from the first blast will be utilised to build initial mine infrastructure, including a run-of-mine area, a crusher pad, as well as haul roads on-site. The company has also begun clearing works and expects to have site offices, workshops, and maintenance areas in place over the next two weeks.
First ore is expected to be mined from the pit in early August, which will be stockpiled ahead of crushing. Ore parcels will be trucked to Westgold Resources’ Bluebird gold processing plant in Meekatharra from September.
The company is expecting to deliver around 40,000 tonnes of ore per month for at least the first two years, with an average grade of four grams per tonne (g/t) of gold.
NMG chief executive officer Alex Passmore said the first blast was a key milestone for the company.
“NMG continues to ramp up activity on-site and is looking forward to first ore mining and then commencement of trucking in September,” he said.
In April, NMG said it had confirmed an “amazing” headline grade for a visual gold intercept at Crown Prince, returning 0.28m at 17,240g/t of gold.
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