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NEWS

Pantoro charges

ahead at Norseman

by Dominic Piper
Paul Cmrlec

antoro Ltd’s proposed redevelopment of the Central butter targets” most easily converted into operations feeding the
PNorseman gold project is nothing new according to central 1 mtpa plant, according to Cmrlec.
managing director Paul Cmrlec. He believes the company will “Mainfield is actually the best of the resources and was only
simply be the latest in a line of gold miners to successfully mined to 200m depth. But it requires a bit more work to get it up
rejuvenate former Western Mining gold assets. which we will do in Phase 2.
“It has been demonstrated on several occasions that there is a Beyond the existing resources, Pantoro is eyeing up a swag of
lot of gold left in these old Western Mining assets,” Cmrlec told untested anomalies on both Lake Cowan and land.
GMJ. “A lot of these sites had not had modern exploration but
“There are 30 different anomalies on the lake and also multiple
once they are tested, more gold is found. Norseman has a lot of
targets off-lake,” Cmrlec said, pointing to Gold Fields’ on-lake
similarities to Kambalda, where Gold Fields [Ltd] has turned up
exploration success as an indicator of Norseman’s wider
millions of ounces since taking it on.”
potential. “The comparison to Kambalda is there. Gold Fields
Like Kambalda, Norseman was thrown on the Western Mining has found millions of ounces in that field, including Invincible in
scrapheap in the early-90s after management chose to move the sedimentary unit, contrary to received wisdom. Norseman is
away from gold. Croesus Mining was successful in revitalising on that same sedimentary unit.”
the discarded asset but for the last 15 years Norseman has
In May, Pantoro announced its first new discovery at Norseman
suffered from a lack of funding, for both exploration and
when the Panda prospect returned hits of 5m @ 24.84 g/t gold,
operations.
9m @ 10.84 g/t, 4m @ 8.26 g/t and 9m @ 2.63 g/t gold.
“Western Mining did very little exploration from the early-90s
“It validates our systematic approach and our dual strategy,”
onwards and subsequent owners were focused on remnant
Cmrlec said. “Panda is a structural target 250m from the Scotia
mining and low-grade areas,” Cmrlec said. “We have come in
resource. We are drilling extensions now because Scotia will be
with a strategy which is seeing the first systematic exploration in
an important spoke feeding that central hub and the bigger we
more than 25 years.”
can make it the simpler it will be.”
With existing resources of 35.5mt @ 3.5 g/t for 4.4 moz gold
A feasibility study is being undertaken in parallel with exploration,
across 25 deposits, Pantoro’s greatest exploration task has
much of which will focus on refurbishment of the plant and
been to remain focused in its ways.
mining schedules.
“We have stuck with a disciplined approach,” Cmrlec explained.
“The plant is in poor condition and we need to replace the vast
“We identified six areas which we can take rapidly into mining
majority of it,” Cmrlec said. “However, the site is infrastructure-
and then grow from there. Some are the best resources in
rich with offices and workshops, an operating power station,
the package, some aren’t, but they are all capable of being
roads to every resource, a bore field and a tailings dam.
production ready. As we finish mining them, we can move into
“On the mining side, we are starting mine design now which will
the next areas. Eventually we could have three or four areas
be all tied together in the feasibility study which we are aiming
producing 200,000 ozpa. That is the ultimate aim, but we won’t
to release late in Q3.”
do that until we have got the resources in front of us.”
Completion of the feasibility study should take Pantoro close to
Pantoro’s six priority mining centres have more than 1.3 moz
satisfying a JV condition which requires it to fund the first $50
gold in resources. Cmrlec said the plan was to extend and infill
million of project development costs, of which it has around $20
mineralisation on each with the aim of building a 500,000oz gold
million to go.
mining inventory before mining begins.
Pantoro is comfortable it has the balance sheet to fund its own
“It needs a lot of testing and extensional drilling before it is ready
contribution. Halls Creek has been a consistent performer for
to open and that’s a big step-change for the project,” he said.
Pantoro with more than 180,000oz produced from two narrow
“WMC mined mainly from shafts so it always had a short mine
vein underground mines – Nicolsons and Wagtail North.
life and subsequently there was very little growth work. We’ve
been investing upfront to ensure the resource is there.” “It has been a fantastic performer and a strong contributor to the
balance sheet,” Cmrlec said.
Mining centres such as Gladstone (268,000oz), Scotia
(413,000oz) and OK Mine (272,000oz) are the “bread-and-
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