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REFINING THE GOLD STANDARD DIGGERS & DEALERS PREVIEW abcrefinery.com

Latitude scopes out Andy Well

by Michael Washbourne

nvestors are set to get a first look at what a proposed restart
Iof the former Doray Minerals operation at Andy Well will entail
before the end of the year.
Latitude Consolidated Ltd picked up what it now refers to as the
Murchison gold project from Silver Lake Resources Ltd (which
acquired the Doray assets via a nil-premium merger in late 2018)
earlier this year for $8 million and has wasted no time resetting
the resource base for a scoping study due in December.
This included recalculating the resource at the undeveloped
Turnberry deposit (11.3 mt @ 1.7 g/t gold for 610,000oz) and
lifting the project’s overall mineral inventory to 13.1mt @ 2.6 g/t
Latitude is preparing a scoping study for the restart of open pit
for 1.115 moz.
and underground mining at Andy Well
Latitude chief executive Tim Davidson said there was potential
for mining to resume at Murchison within about 24 months if the
initial study numbers stack up. we can look to develop a milling scenario to handle that. We
Andy Well produced 330,000oz grading 8 g/t before the won’t adjust the resource to match the mill, we’ll do it the other
operation was put on care-and-maintenance in 2017 when the way.
gold price was just $1,600/oz. Three high-grade underground “The grade has dropped to a small degree, but it’s more the
lodes remain unmined. geological interpretation has been unconstrained from a milling
“What we intend with this first mining study we want to release perspective. We’ve removed that requirement to put it through a
is to outline to the market a base case and show this is where it really small processing plant.”
stands now and this is what we think we can deliver,” Davidson Turnberry has a current strike length of 1.5km and remains open
told GMJ. to the north, south and at depth. The new resource averages
“As we continue to do the exploration, we’ll build on that study. 1,850oz per vertical metre from surface to 200m depth where
This will be the base and everything that comes post the release the density of drilling reduces significantly.
of that study will be folded in and included in the next iteration. Davidson said there was potential for Turnberry to head
With luck, if we continue to deliver good exploration results and underground once the open pit is completed, but more drilling
build the mineral inventory organically through drilling, the study was needed below the 200m to prove whether this was feasible.
will only get better as we bring those resources into the mining
Following the release of the updated resource at Turnberry,
plan.
Latitude tapped the market for $6.75 million which it is quickly
“We’re confident we’ll get the initial mining study out by pouring into exploration efforts across its 343sq km land holding.
December and it will outline a strong case to continue working
Initial assays from the Phase 1 10,000m aircore drilling
towards development and ultimately production.”
programme are starting to flow, including an encouraging
Three processing options will be considered in the scoping intersection of 7m @ 1.9 g/t gold for 121m (including 1m @ 9.59
study, including toll milling or an expansion/refit of the existing g/t) in the Suzie North lode at Andy Well.
Andy Well plant, or a hybrid of both scenarios.
Suzie North is one of several untested targets Latitude hopes to
Latitude recently recalculated the resource for Turnberry based bring into the mine plan in due course.
on its potential to be a large open pit rather than the small
Davidson said the company’s progress to date was more than
underground mine which Doray had previously modelled.
justifying the acquisition proposal he worked so hard to piece
“The previous owners of the project were trying to create a together for the best part of two years.
resource they could process through the existing Andy Well
“I’m really thrilled with how things have progressed, I’m really
mill, which was the right size for the high-grade underground at
excited by what we have in front of us and I couldn’t be happier
Andy Well, but too small to handle a large open pit production
with the composition of the register and the support we’ve got
scenario, which is really what Turnberry is,” Davidson explained.
from our shareholders,” he said. “And we’re in a rising gold price
“We’ve effectively said we’re not going to have the plant dictate environment which is just the icing on the cake.”
the resource size. Really the resource is what it is, and we’ll
model it in that fashion. Whatever that resource turns out to be

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