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NEWS

Ryan ready to Rox n’ roll

by Michael Washbourne

ew Rox Resources Ltd managing director Robert Ryan
Nis confident Youanmi can thrive as a standalone mining
operation, as he prepares to take the 3.2 moz project down the
potentially lucrative pathway of gold concentrate sales.
Ryan has wasted no time strengthening the development case
A scoping study has indicated that Rox can revive operations at the
for Rox’s flagship asset since being promoted from his previous Youanmi gold mine for just $134 million
non-executive role in late October, orchestrating a $5 million
capital raising just weeks after the company published a robust
“From the test work we’ve conducted to date at Youanmi, it
scoping study for a 71,000 ozpa operation at Youanmi, 480km
shows the arsenic in the gold concentrate will be sub-2%, which
north-east of Perth.
we know is going to be in significant demand on the global
The study found a combination of gold-in-concentrate and market, especially when it looks to be going into China, where
CIL bullion production from Youanmi was the “optimum”
a lot of the import regulations don’t allow gold concs over 6% in
commercialisation strategy for initial cash flow generation. arsenic.
Capex for the proposed open pit and underground operation
“There is a large amount of what we call dirty concentrate
and accompanying 480,000 tpa processing infrastructure is
produced in the global market, but that doesn’t have a natural
priced at $134 million, with payback to be achieved after three
home unless it’s blended down with clean concentrates, and so
years.
that’s where Youanmi will fill a niche and why we expect there
Other key financial estimates were cumulative EBITDA of $577 will be significant demand for the Youanmi concentrate.”
million over the eight-year project life, undiscounted free cash
The immediate focus for Rox is converting more of the Youanmi
flow of $418 million, pre-tax NPV of $303 million and IRR of
resource to indicated status. Some 21% of the material
45%.
considered in the recent scoping study was classified as
Asked by GMJ if the outcomes of the scoping study confirmed inferred.
Rox would pursue development of Youanmi as a standalone
Ryan expects the company will finalise a PFS within 12 months
operation, Ryan replied: “100%”.
before moving into DFS mode. The study phases will likely be
“When you look at the scale of the resource being over 3 moz,
supported by additional exploration to lift the total resource base
it’s got the backbone of a really strong production centre,” he of the project.
said. “Then, if you look at the current mine plan, at 480,000 tpa,
Rox is set to receive a further cash injection of $3.8 million to
I think if we can upscale that by 10-20%, we will start seeing a
fund its ongoing activities at Youanmi after declaring its intention
significant increase in overall production from the project.”
to support Kinterra Battery Metals Mining Fund LP’s proposed
A mining engineer, Ryan most recently guided Bardoc Gold takeover of spin-out company Cannon Resources Ltd.
through feasibility studies on its namesake gold project,
Ryan said the company would also progressively run the ruler
followed by offtake negotiations for the proposed concentrate
over the other assets in its portfolio, including the adjoining
production prior to the company’s acquisition by St Barbara
Mt Fisher and Mt Eureka projects, which host a combined
Ltd for $150 million. He has already observed some striking
187,000oz @ 1.65 g/t gold resource following a recent upgrade.
similarities between the Youanmi and Bardoc projects, in
particular mineralisation styles and the quality of the potential “Mt Fisher has the potential for quite a large resource base,
it’s got a lot of high-grade supergene mineralisation there,
concentrate parcels.
and where you do get these big and rich zones of supergene
Concentrate production accounts for 12% of global gold output
mineralisation, you tend to have a feeder system somewhere
and is becoming more common practice for processing of
close by,” he said.
refractory orebodies. Ryan believes it is a lucrative segment of
“We think there’s quite large exploration potential in that Mt
the precious metals market.
Fisher area, however, it is a semi non-core asset, so we’ll
“The biggest area of demand is gold concentrates that are low
continue to either progress it through exploration or we’ll look to
in arsenic,” he said.
monetise it through a potential sale.”
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