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Australia

Castle Hill Project

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Overview

Mine TypeOpen Pit
StagePermitting
Commodities
  • Gold
Mining Method
  • Truck & Shovel / Loader
Mine Life... Lock
SnapshotCastle Hill open pit is a part of Mungari Gold Operations. The Paradigm and Castle Hill open pit operations have been scheduled for production between 2023 and 2025.
Related AssetMungari Operation

Owners

SourceSource
CompanyInterestOwnership
Evolution Mining Ltd. 100 % Indirect
Evolution has full ownership and unfettered access to the Castle Hill deposit.

Deposit type

  • Intrusion related
  • Vein / narrow vein

Summary:

The Castle Hill Mineral Resource comprises four deposits from south to north: Wadi, Mick Adam, Outridge and Kiora.

The principal lithology to host gold mineralisation at Mick Adams-Kiora and Wadi (Castle Hill Stage 1) is the Kintore Tonalite a large intrusive granitoid of granodioritic composition. The tonalite intrudes a sequence of basaltic and ultramafic rocks to the east and west. The elliptical Kintore Tonalite attenuates to the south to form very long narrow (80m wide in plan) intrusion which hosts the Mick Adams and Wadi gold mineralisation and a dyke swarm to the south-east which hosts the Outridge and Kiora gold mineralisation. Gold mineralisation is also hosted along the eastern margin of the main body of the tonalite at Wookie and Picante. Gold mineralisation in this area is hosted within the tonalite and within the flanking mafic/ultramafic sequence. The Lady Alice gold mineralisation is associated with a fault array hosted entirely within the bulk of the tonalite intrusive. The Lady Alice fault array coincides with the boundary between de-magnetised tonalite to the east and magnetised tonalite to the west.

Vertical vein arrays and kinematic indicators at Mick Adams and Kiora show the primary deformation at Castle Hill was extension with an east block down (sinistral normal) sense of movement, suggesting emplacement of the tonalite coincided with the beginning of an extensional doming event and the start of basin formation.

Mick Adams and Wadi are separated by a NE trending fault which has generated an offset of 250m across strike. Both deposits dip shallowly to the east. NW trending shear zones which were re-activated during sinistral transpression accommodate much of the compressional strain and act to preserve the extensional domain. Primary mineralisation within the tonalite at Mick Adams and Wadi occurs as discrete narrow west dipping quartz veins containing moderately to extremely high gold grades and as fine disseminated gold within the tonalite groundmass. Visible gold has been observed in drill core in both quartz veins and as blebs in the tonalite groundmass. The disseminated gold is commonly associated with minor blebs of pyrite, arsenopyrite and rare chalcopyrite. High gold grade veins are typically 10 to 20cm thick and commonly occur in extensional arrays of four to five veins generating high grade zones up to 10m in horizontal thickness. Extensional veins are more common along the eastern margin of the tonalite. At the southern end of Mick Adams extensional vein arrays have been intersected in the footwall of the mafic unit proximal to the tonalite contact.

Extensional shear zone arrays are also the host of the gold mineralisation at Kiora. Sheeted quartz veins are interpreted as the extensional veins propagating out form the shears. The veins within Kiora are hosted within the tonalite along the contact with ultramafic rocks and have been interpreted as having undergone supergene enrichment. Gold mineralisation at Kiora is also hosted within fault fill veins formed March 2015 by movement on a shallowly dipping normal fault. Primary mineralisation within the basalt which forms the immediate hangingwall of the Mick Adams mineralisation is characteristically associated with shearing, extensional veining and biotite alteration. This mineralisation has been called Outridge and comprises a number of zones which pinch and swell along strike and down dip. Outridge mineralisation has been interpreted as steeply dipping to the west.

Mick Adams Mineral Resource has the imensions of 1290m (north) by 100m (east) and has been drilled to an average vertical depth of 275m. The Wadi Mineral resource has the dimensions of 580m (north) by 50m (east) and has been drilled to a depth of 150m.

Reserves

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Mining Methods

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Comminution

Crushers and Mills

Milling equipment has not been reported.

Processing

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Production

CommodityUnitsAvg. AnnualLOM
Gold koz 27192
All production numbers are expressed as metal in doré.

Operational metrics

Metrics
Annual processing rate 2 Mt *
Annual processing capacity 2 Mt *
Tonnes processed, LOM 14.6 Mt *
* According to 2015 study.

Production Costs

CommodityEstimated
All-in sustaining costs (AISC) Gold 913 / oz *  AUD
C1 cash costs Gold 863 / oz *  AUD
Assumed price Gold 1,500 / oz *  USD
* According to 2015 study / presentation.

Operating Costs

Currency2024
Processing costs ($/t milled) AUD 10.9 *  AUD
* According to 2015 study.

Project Costs

MetricsUnitsLOM Total
Initial CapEx $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Gross revenue (LOM) $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax Cash Flow (LOM) $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax NPV @ 8% $M AUD  ......  Subscribe
Pre-tax IRR, %  ......  Subscribe

Heavy Mobile Equipment

Fleet data has not been reported.

Personnel

Mine Management

Job TitleNameProfileRef. Date
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Mar 6, 2024
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 27, 2023
....................... Subscription required ....................... Subscription required Subscription required Dec 27, 2023

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