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Australia

Gum Creek Project

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePreliminary Economic Assessment
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotGum Creek Gold Project includes 14 open pit deposits and has excellent potential to extend the proposed mine life through underground mining and other processing methods exists.

Horizon Gold has determined that constructing and operating a new gravity / CIL processing plant is the optimum business strategy for the Gum Creek Project.

The Project has a camp, an operating airstrip, a relic CIL processing facility, extensive haul road network and a large tailings storage facility.

As of October 2024, work on the Gum Creek Gold Project Feasibility Study has commenced with a focus on resource interpolation methods, mining schedules and costs, processing throughput rates, and dewatering costs.

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Horizon Gold Ltd 100 % Indirect
Horizon Gold Ltd owns 100% of the Gum Creek Gold Project.

Contractors

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Deposit type

  • Vein / narrow vein
  • Banded iron formation hosted

Summary:

The Project covers the most prospective parts of the Gum Creek Greenstone Belt, located within the Southern Cross Province of the Youanmi Terrane, which forms part of the mineral rich Archaean Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia. The Gum Creek Greenstone Belt is an elongate, broadly sinusoidal formation about 110km long and 24km wide, dominated by mafic volcanic and sedimentary sequences, intruded by granitoids of various ages and compositions. The margins of the belt are typically dominated by contact-metamorphosed basalts and banded iron formations (BIF).

The greenstone sequence is relatively simple, with three broadly continuous major geological units occupying a large north-south synclinorium. The lowest unit consists of a sequence of interbedded banded iron formation and mafic and ultramafic volcanics overlain by ferruginous shales, shales and thin cherts. On the western margin of the belt this lower sequence has been partly intruded out by granites, and remains as thinner, discontinuous remnants.

The Project consists of Eagle, Howards, Heron South, Kingfisher, Shiraz, and Specimen Well deposits, and maiden MRE’s for the Deep South Reliance, Eagles Peak, Fangio, Kearrys, Hawk, Heron, Hyperno-Reliance, Melbourne Bitter and Wedge deposits.

Howards
Gold mineralisation at Howards is hosted within a broad, north-south trending, vertical to steep west-dipping shear zone, approximately 150m from, and sub-parallel to the eastern contact of the Montague granodiorite. Mineralisation is associated with strong quartz veining and intense silica-albite-biotite alteration within sheared basalt above a footwall dolerite unit. Two sinistral northwest-trending faults offset the northern end of the main lode and Howards South from the main Howards lode by 30m and 150m respectively. Mineralisation displays a continuous strike of over 1.4km and remains open at depth and to the north of Howards, and at depth and to the south of Howards South.

Shiraz
Gold mineralisation at Shiraz is hosted within a thick, quartz veined pyrite-pyrrhotite-rich quartz dolerite unit that strikes northwest to north-northwest and dips to the west at around 700 . Mineralisation is continuous over around 850m of strike with an average width of around 40m. The deposit can be subdivided into south and north mineralised domains separated by an interpreted northeast trending fault. The south zone strikes at around 3300°, and the north zone strikes at around 3150°.

Deep South Reliance
Gold mineralisation at Deep South Reliance is located within two to four sub-parallel moderate to steep east dipping shear zones containing highly weathered quartz veined mafic volcanic units. Apart from one sinistral fault offset at the northern end of Deep South, mineralisation is continuous over an 850m strike length and is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of approximately 80m.

Eagle
Gold mineralisation at Eagle occurs as steeply dipping quartz-carbonate shear veins and flat lying quartz-carbonate tension vein arrays developed within a major ~N-S oriented steeply west dipping shear within mafic host rocks. Carbonate-sericite-sulphide wall rock alteration is common about mineralised zones and extensive supergene enrichment often overlays primary mineralisation zones.

Eagles Peak
Gold mineralisation at Eagles Peak strikes north-northwest, dips vertically, and is associated with quartz-pyrite veining within strongly altered basalt on or adjacent to a sediment / basalt contact. Mineralisation has been offset by a series of NE-trending faults, however mineralisation remains continuous over a 500m strike length, is up to 16m wide, and is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of ~100m.

Fangio
Gold mineralisation at Fangio is associated with quartz-pyrite veining within magnetic banded iron formation, is continuous over a 250m strike length, is up to 15m wide, and is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of ~70m below surface.

Kearrys
Gold mineralisation at Kearrys occurs in quartz veined, banded iron formation (BIF), is continuous over a 370m strike length, is up to 18m wide, and is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of ~100m within the northern gold shoot. Mineralisation strikes north-northwest, dips between 40 and 70 degrees to the west, plunges at ~30 degrees to the south, and remains open to the south and down dip.

Kingfisher
Gold mineralisation at Kingfisher is located within two moderately southwest-dipping, planar gold lodes within a 60m wide, 1.4km long shear zone that remains open to the north, south and at depth. Both lodes are interpreted to contain moderately south plunging high grade gold shoots forming part of an overlapping en-echelon vein array stepping down to the north. Gold mineralisation is associated with quartz-sulphide veining within sheared, strongly sericite - carbonate - fuchsite - sulphide altered amygdaloidal basalt units (hanging wall) and fine-grained sediments (footwall).

Hyperno-Reliance
Gold mineralisation at Hyperno-Reliance is associated with quartz veined limonitic saprolite within two sub-parallel mineralised zones located ~200m apart. Mineralisation identified to date is mainly shallow, flat lying (supergene), however several wide spaced deeper holes have intercepted moderate to steep easterly dipping mineralisation defined to a maximum vertical depth of approximately 100m.

Melbourne Bitter
Gold mineralisation at Melbourne Bitter is located within deeply weathered quartz veined, sheared and altered basalt. Mineralisation within Horizon’s tenure is continuous over a 700m strike length and is currently only defined to a vertical depth of approximately 120m. Primary gold mineralisation at Melbourne Bitter (north) strikes north-northwest, and dips at ~700 to the west, whilst in the south, mineralisation dips at ~300 to the west in a series of stacked gold lodes.

Hawk
Gold mineralisation at Hawk is associated with quartz veined limonitic saprolite and pyritic sericite-silica altered basalt within two sub-parallel, steeply south-west dipping shear zones containing abundant flat-lying quartz tension veins. Mineralisation is continuous over a 450m strike, is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of approximately 130m and high-grade gold mineralisation appears to plunge to the north.

Heron
Gold mineralisation at Heron is located within broad flat-lying supergene enrichment zones overlying three sub-parallel northeast dipping fault zones containing quartz veined altered basalt. Mineralisation is continuous over an 850m strike and is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of approximately 350m.

Heron South
Gold mineralisation at Heron South is located within shallow flat lying supergene zones, and steeply plunging, steeply east dipping shear zones containing quartz-carbonate-sulphide veins within strongly sericite-carbonate altered mafic units. Mineralisation is continuous over a 650m strike and is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of 200m.

Specimen Well
Gold mineralisation at Specimen Well is continuous over a 1.4km strike length, is up to 25m wide, and is currently defined to a maximum vertical depth of ~135m towards the centre of the deposit. Mineralisation strikes north-northeast, is sub-vertical to steeply east dipping, and remains open to the north, south and down dip.

Wedge
High grade gold mineralisation is located within shoots that plunge at ~30 degrees to the south, sub-parallel to fold axes observed in the southern open pit, and is associated with quartz-pyrite veined, strongly sheared, strongly altered basalt. Gold shoots also appear to plunge to the north. Folded sediments and felsic intrusives also host lower grade mineralisation in the northern parts of the prospect.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

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Processing

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Production

CommodityUnitsAvg. Annual
Gold oz 84,000
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.

Operational metrics

Metrics
Annual mining rate  ....  Subscribe
Annual processing capacity  ....  Subscribe
Stripping / waste ratio  ....  Subscribe
Ore tonnes mined, LOM  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2024 study.

Production Costs

CommodityAverage
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold  ....  Subscribe
C1 cash costs Gold  ....  Subscribe
Assumed price Gold  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2024 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

CurrencyAverage
OP mining costs ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
Processing costs ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
G&A ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
Total operating costs ($/t milled) AUD  ....  Subscribe
* According to 2024 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Pre-Production capital costs $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Sustaining CapEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Total CapEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
OP OpEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Processing OpEx $M AUD 577.6
G&A costs $M AUD 44.5
Total OpEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Royalty payments $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Net revenue (LOM) $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
EBITDA (LOM) $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 8% $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax payback period, years  ......  Subscribe

Required Heavy Mobile Equipment

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Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Nov 18, 2024

Aerial view:

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