Total gold sales from Auric Mining’s (ASX: AWJ) Jeffreys Find gold mine outside Norseman in Western Australia have now topped a massive $105 million.
In what can only be described as an impressive financial success for the company, the project has showcased the profitability of a short life mine that was once dismissed as an “ugly duckling” in local mining circles. Defying expectations, Jeffreys Find has scored big, outperforming initial projections for its gold production and revenue.
Stage two of the current mining campaign, which kicked off in mid-2024, has so far generated $72.04m in gold sales and adds to income of $29.28m from stage one mining in 2023, taking the total project revenue to $105.18m.
Stage two has produced 17,900 ounces of gold, on top of the 9740 ounces the mine delivered in 2023, with more processing to come. Auric’s joint venture partner BML Ventures is finalising a toll milling deal for an additional 60,000-tonne parcel of ore stockpiled on the ROM pad at the mine site.
Auric initially budgeted for a gold price of about $2600 per ounce. Thanks to a well-timed surge in gold prices over the past year, however, the company has been getting as much as $4625 per ounce for its gold, with an average price of $4024 per ounce.
Auric says its relationship with mining contract BML has also contributed to Jeffreys Find’s outstanding performance.
Under the joint venture agreement, Auric has been able to sidestep any substantial up front capital costs from mining the deposit. BML is providing much of the funding and machinery, while toll processing has avoided the need for a plant.
BML has handled the mining, haulage and milling operations, with the partners sharing surplus proceeds on a 50:50 basis after deducting costs.
Auric pocketed another $1.5m in interim payments from BML from the latest payment, pushing its total stage two earnings to $8.1m with plenty of cash to come. This adds to the $4.8m the company collected from stage one.
Under the joint venture agreement, the real payday comes after all the gold is sold and every last cost is covered.
According to BML, Auric can expect an additional $3m to $4m when the final gold ounces hit the market. As the dust settles, a clearer picture of the full scale of Jeffreys Find’s success will become evident.
In just a couple of years this short life mine has now generated more than $100 million in gold sales for the project. By any measure it’s a brilliant result. However, not all the money is in the bank yet. We are expecting millions more in surplus cash to be received over the next few months. Jeffreys Find gold mine has been a defining experience for Auric.
Auric Mining Managing Director Mark English
While Jeffreys Find may be nearing the end of its mining cycle, the project’s financial success augurs well for Auric’s next phase of growth. With a substantial cash surplus expected from the final gold sales, the company is in an excellent position to reinvest in future mining projects.
To that end, the shovels are already being moved to Munda, its next development, near Widgiemooltha in WA. The company plans to toll treat and produce 6100 ounces of gold from a starter pit at site to spit out a useful $5.3m in free cash, assuming a $3500 per ounce gold price and $2635 per ounce all-in sustaining cost.
By employing a staged toll-treating operation, Auric will first tackle the low hanging fruit by excavating a 125,000-tonne reserve grading 1.8 grams per tonne (g/t) to generate quick cash and refine its understanding of the broader orebody.
Ore will be trucked 95 kilometres for toll treatment using a carbon-in-leach process, with an expected 83 per cent recovery rate.
The starter pit is designed as an open pit drill-and-blast operation and will initially be stripped of 339,000 cubic metres of overburden, reducing future mining costs amid strong gold prices.
The company has budgeted $4.86m for capital and working capital and is aiming to recoup those costs from cashflow. Full-scale mining of the larger resource of 3.65 million tonnes at 1.23g/t gold for 145,000 ounces is targeted for a 2026 start.
It’s been only two years since ore was first moved at Jeffreys Find and the short-life project has turned into a golden triumph. A surge in gold prices, fuelled by global economic uncertainty, inflation fears and central bank buying has supercharged the mine’s returns and Auric has been able to make plenty of hay while the sun shines.
Punter watching Auric’s moves may have witnessed a masterclass in turning a small-scale venture, such as its Norseman mine, into a project with outsized rewards.
The big question now is whether Auric can back this up. If Jeffreys Find is any indication, the company’s next project could well be another glittering success.
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