Auric Mining has presented plans on its next pathway to new production tabling a compelling integrated study for its Munda and Burbanks gold assets in Western Australia’s Kalgoorlie goldfields. The study highlights a potential $812 million in revenue over five years and a whopping $437 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) from the recovery of 141,254 ounces of gold.

The company’s five-year plan involves open-pit mining at the company’s Munda gold deposit, with a detailed timeline now mapped out. Auric says 2027 will be a year of intense preparation, dedicated to the construction and re-establishment of the Burbanks mill, alongside planning and securing government approvals.

Mining at Munda is slated to kick off in December 2027, with the ore to be hauled 87km to Burbanks. Processing is set to begin in April 2028, with the company expecting its first gold sales in that same month.

The numbers featured in the integrated study appear solid. Based on the current gold spot price of about A$5,750 per ounce, the project shows a rapid capital payback of just 2.3 years.

The all-in sustaining cost of A$2,843 per ounce, suggests a more-than healthy margin against the study’s current-case gold price. Impressively, the study has delivered its robust numbers against a backdrop of recent industry-wide cost inflation for key inputs such as steel, fuel and labour.

The total funding requirement to bring the integrated operation online is $145 million, covering the rebuild of the Burbanks plant, establishing the Munda open pit and all pre-production and working capital costs.

‘... It shows a clear pathway to becoming a standalone gold producer...’Auric Mining managing director Mark English

Notably, with cash of $37 million in the bank, the company appears to have a walk-up start on the equity component when putting together a package to financing the development.

Auric’s plan is to take control of its destiny. By re-establishing the Burbanks facility, the company eliminates its reliance on third-party mills to treat its ore in a region where processing capacity is already notoriously tight.

The new-look Burbanks plant has been designed with an initial throughput of 600,000 tonnes per annum - perfectly sized to process all the planned ore from Munda over a 56-month period.

The company also has its eyes on a bigger prize, designing the plant to be readily scalable to 1.2 million tonnes per annum. Auric’s strategy is to use the free cash flow generated in years two and three to fund the plant expansion, positioning Burbanks as a potential future regional processing hub that pays for its own growth.

The study’s mine plan incorporates the mining of 2.77 million tonnes of ore grading a solid 1.75 grams per tonne gold (g/t) for 155,844 contained ounces from a large open pit at Munda. The plan is bolstered by the recent success of Auric’s Munda Starter Pit where the trial mining campaign not only generated cash flow, with all gold sold at an average price of an impressive A$7,178 per ounce but provided invaluable, real-world data on the deposit’s geology, mining characteristics and met recoveries.

The company says the starter pit de-risked the larger project, with an average recovery of a hefty 89.5 per cent achieved from processing 126,000 tonnes of ore. That figure has been conservatively applied to the new study.

Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “This study is another important step in Auric’s evolution. It shows a clear pathway to becoming a standalone gold producer, with Munda providing the initial feed and Burbanks giving us control of a strategically important processing facility in the Goldfields.”

The Munda deposit currently holds a JORC-compliant resource of 4.3 million tonnes at 1.42 g/t gold for 194,000 ounces, with the deposit remaining open along strike and at depth. Auric is not sitting on its hands either, with a resource extension drilling program kicking off this month.

Whilst the study presents a compelling, self-contained case for developing Munda and Burbanks into an integrated gold operation, management says it could be just the opening act. The company holds a commanding 521-square-kilometre tenement package in the highly prospective Eastern Goldfields, all within trucking distance of its proposed processing hub.

Auric appears to have a clear pathway to new production having previously written a blueprint on toll treating production at its Jeffrey’s Find project. This new plan, with a scalable mill in a target-rich region will be supported by an active exploration program which is already underway. For a junior on the cusp of a treading a new pathway to production, this study appears to be the start of the next chapter for Auric Mining.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au