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OPERATIONAL REVIEW
DIGGeRs & DeALeRs PReVIeW MACA.NET.AU

drill rigs turning on site and it was the larg- challenged the industry in recent times.
est exploration project happening in the “Firstly, we already have in place an
whole of Western Australia there for a amazing team where people look after
while. We now have two drill rigs turning each other as a family,” he said.
from underground, and of course it’s much “Of course, the second one is carbon-
better bang for your buck when you’re drill- free and is the way of the future and we
ing from underground.” want to be seen as leading that and I think
If construction continues to progress on it’s only natural that people will want to be
time and on budget, Bellevue is likely to be involved in it.
rewarded by the market. Recent develop- “The third one is that this is a brand new
ers turned producers such as Red 5 Ltd, mine. All of the infrastructure is brand new,
Calidus Resources Ltd, Capricorn Metals the camp is brand new, the underground is
Ltd and Emerald Resources Ltd all enjoyed brand new, so it’s not going to be hot like
healthy share price increases in the lead- a lot of the other deep underground mines
up to pouring first gold. that have been going for decades here in
“It’s interesting when you change from WA.”
being just a pure explorer and move So, how does that differ to when Par-

Steve Parsons

“We are starting a brand new mine
which is a very high margin, highly profit-
able gold mine, which means that we can
actually start out by looking at new ways of
doing things,” Parsons explained.
“One of those is that we can have a very
high renewable energy component to it by
starting a standalone wind farm and solar
farm. The renewable energy penetration
will probably be up around 70-80%, which
means that we are well on track for being
able to produce that carbon-free gold.”
Since the discovery hole in November
2017, Bellevue has grown the resource at
a compound annual rate of 94% and over
the last 10 months alone, the company has
increased the project mine life by 25%.
There are few who would argue the
company has not been the standout gold
explorer on the ASX over the past five
years. With the focus now turning to devel- Bellevue’s project development timeline was 62% complete at the time of print
opment and production within the next 12
months, exploration will be placed on the through the development phase, which sons first joined the industry more than two
backburner somewhat. However, Parsons a lot of people would normally say is the decades ago?
does not expect the hiatus will last long. ‘boring’ stage, but if you look at any of the “When I started it was six weeks on, one
“This project will continue to grow,” he development companies which have been week off, living in a caravan if you were
said. “We’ve grown at such a rapid rate successful over the last few years, you’ll lucky,” he laughed.
of knots from discovery to 3 moz @ 10 typically see that their share prices either “Things have changed a lot over the
g/t gold that we’d love to see that explora- double or triple over that time from when years and they’ve changed very much for
tion continue. Right now, it is about getting they de-risk and move it into production,” the better. It means that people can get
the processing plant up and running and Parsons said. home on shorter rosters and see their fam-
pouring that gold on time and on budget, “We’re super-excited for this phase. It’s ily and friends. Things are also much safer
but also converting more of that 3 moz re- typically the phase that fund managers these days and there’s much more empha-
source into reserves…and you’ll see that get excited about as well because as you sis on mental health and the way that peo-
growing up towards the 2 moz mark over de-risk and move into production, there ple look after themselves and look after
the coming months. should a natural increase in valuation over their colleagues on site. All of these have
“Once that’s all complete, then you’ll that time.” been real big positives and a great change
see us going back to basics and stepping Parsons is not expecting to face any for the industry.”
out and growing that resource and dem- major hurdles recruiting staff to work at the
onstrating that this is a large multi-million Bellevue mine despite the well-document- – Michael Washbourne
ounce district. ed labour and skills shortages which have
“At one point at Bellevue we had nine

Page 82 JULY 2022 aUSTRaLIa’S PaYDIRT