The contract relates to underground development and production stoping from the Beresford and Allanson underground mines, which together comprise the Westralia Mine Area.
BY REUBEN ADAMS
Dacian Gold is on track to be pouring first gold at Mt Morgans within 12 months after conditionally awarding the underground mining contract to WA contractor RUC Cementation Mining (RUC).
The conditional Letter of Intent relates to underground development and production stoping from the Beresford and Allanson underground mines, which together comprise the Westralia Mine Area.
The contract – initially 3 years with two discretionary 1 year extensions – includes establishment of a new portal for Beresford; rehabilitation of the existing Allanson portal and decline; all decline and level development; all ore driving; and all stope production.
The underground mining contract follows the recent completion of Dacian Gold’s $110 million equity raising in February and award of the engineering, procuring and construction (EPC) of a new 2.5mtpa CIL treatment facility to GR Engineering Services in early March.
Dacian expected commencement of construction of the new treatment facility and mobilisation of RUC to Mt Morgans would both occur late April, with underground mining set to commence in May.
Dacian Gold executive chairman Rohan Williams said the company was rapidly ticking the boxes on the path to becoming Australia’s next significant mid-tier gold producer.
“With a Letter
of Intent issued last month to GR Engineering to build the new 2.5mtpa treatment plant and now to experienced WA-based underground mining ser
vices group RUC Mining for the underground mining contract, we now have two of the key contracts in place which are required to bring Mt Morgans into gold production in less than 12 months,” he said.
“During the construction phase and initial mining phase at Mount Morgans we will maintain our aggressive exploration programs aimed at discovering new gold resources. As a result, we expect to be providing strong news flow over the coming months.”
In the three years of exploration Dacian has discovered 2.2 million ounces of gold at Westralia and Jupiter.
