Bellevue Gold Limited has signed a toll treating agreement with a Genesis Minerals Limited subsidiary, under which Genesis would process material from the Bellevue Gold Mine, mainly from the Vanguard open pit.
The ore from Vanguard open pit will be processed at Genesis’ Gwalia processing plan, located roughly 170 kilometres south of the Bellevue Gold Mine via the sealed Goldfields Highway. This will allow Bellevue to produce cash flow in the September 2023 quarter, ahead of the December 2023 quarter’s anticipated processing at the Bellevue Gold Mine processing plant.
The Vanguard open pit, where the cutback is taking place, is now being mined and stockpiled at the Bellevue Gold Mine during the pre-production stage because of its proximity to the tailings storage facility. The tailings dam wall is being built with waste material from pit mining. Surface mining is going well, with surface mining contractor NRW Holdings Limited making progress on both the tailings storage facility and the open pit mining. Trucking and toll collection are planned to be finished in the third quarter of 2023.
MLG Oz Limited will transport open pit material to Genesis’ Gwalia processing plant under the terms of the deal. About 100,000t of ore with an average grade of roughly 3g/t gold will be processed as part of the agreement. Because the open pit material would otherwise remain on the stockpile until later in the mine’s life, the execution of the toll treating agreement will be NPV accretive to the project overall.
The Bellevue processing facility is still on track and on budget, with the plant projected to be ready for commissioning with underground ore in the fourth quarter of 2023. Underground mine development is also proceeding apace, with the fourth and final jumbo rig having arrived and been commissioned.
