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DIGGERS & DEALERS PREVIEW

Wiluna’s latest resurrection

by Mark Andrews

rebrand, a new opportunity and a humming gold sector is million per month in operating
A what Milan Jerkovic has in front of him as executive chair of cashflow from the production of
Wiluna Mining Corp. 60,000 ozpa gold dore over the
Wiluna Mining, formerly Blackham Resources, was unveiled in next 12 months, as the start of a
June as the company looked to capitalise on prevailing conditions two-stage expansion programme
in the gold concentrate market at the 24.7mt @ 1.7 g/t for 1.4 moz begins.
gold (reserves) and 93.2mt @ 2.1 g/t for 6.4 moz (resources) Commissioning of the Stage 1
Wiluna mining centre. sulphides project (100,000-120,000
“The big thing that has changed to put us on the same page as ozpa sulphide concentrate and gold
some of the bigger producers is that the concentrate market has dore) is planned for September
gone from being 65% payable to 85% payable; that is the huge 2021, subject to board approval
shift,” Jerkovic told GMJ recently. for funding of the eight-year Milan Jerkovic
proposition.
“The gold price in concentrate market has given us an opening
that never existed for Bryan Dixon [former Blackham managing Stage 2 of the expansion will see output increase to more than
director] two years ago.” 250,000 ozpa gold in concentrate and gold dore from 2024.
Free milling ore from the Williamson open pit at Lake Way and To secure those plans, the company completed a $52 million
high-grade underground material from Golden Age keep the 2.1 capital raising earlier this year and locked in a three-year
mtpa CIL plant at Wiluna fed and are estimated to deliver $3-4 purchase-and-sale agreement for 70% or 122,500 dmt of gold
concentrate (whichever is greater) of Stage 1 production with
Polymetal International plc. Trafigura has agreed to take the
Dr Robert (Bob) Fagan remaining 30% in offtake.
B.Sc.,(Hons), Ph.D.,(UNE) Furthermore, a strategic alliance was also formed and will see
Polymetal act as an agent for up to 100% of Wiluna concentrate for
the expanded Wiluna Stage 2.
“Polymetal is building the world’s largest pressure leach plant on
the coast of Russia to actually catch concentrate from the Pacific
region. They came to us and identified us as one of the largest
orebodies that can supply feed into their long-term facilities,”
Jerkovic said.
“They know how to operate pressure leach plants and their power
costs are a third of ours and shipping concentrate is not a huge
cost. We will never compete on power costs with them the way
Australia is going and they will always have that advantage, which
is quite significant as pressure leaching needs a lot of power. We
have a strategic alliance with them to look at bringing more volume
as there are a lot of stranded deposits around Wiluna.”
Jerkovic estimated there were about 26 deposits within 100km of
Wiluna’s facilities that did not have processing solutions.
This digital text or course is designed for first year geology
students, prospectors, mining personnel, teachers, Therefore, with the free milling plant at Wiluna potentially idle in
engineers, bureaucrats, financial analysts, journalists, three years’ time, discussions and MoUs regarding the use of the
corporate executives, managers and other professionals facility are being entertained by Jerkovic.
needing a full & comprehensive overview of geology, what “Once we do the full sulphide construction of the 1.5 mtpa crushing
geologists do and how to understand & make productive
use of this information. milling circuit, the free milling circuit will be sitting dormant. We will
Downloadable $US100 then look at our own free milling ore we haven’t developed for a 2
mtpa plant,” Jerkovic said.
With an additional 20 chapters on prospecting & small-scale mining. Activate
the web page link now for more details & to download an example chapter.

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