Auric beats WA gold processing squeeze with crucial Black Cat deal

West Australian

6 hours ago

Auric Mining has secured a pivotal toll treatment and ore purchase agreement with Black Cat Syndicate, ensuring 125,000 tonnes of gold ore from its Munda starter pit in Western Australia's Southern Goldfields will be processed not too far away at Black Cat's Lakewood Mill in Kalgoorlie.
With mill space in the greater Kalgoorlie region reportedly tighter than a drum, the deal locks in crucial production for Auric, positioning the company to cash in a quick 6100 ounces in a soaring gold price environment.
Auric forecasts the ore will yield about 6100 recovered ounces of gold at a grade of 1.8 grams per tonne (g/t). Based on the current gold price, still hovering above $5000 an ounce and up more than 30 per cent this year alone, the potential gross revenue would exceed $28 million for the $30 million market-cap company.
The agreement marks one of the company's most significant steps and the final piece of the puzzle for Auric's Munda pit, where mining operations are already in full swing following a recent first blast and the start of overburden removal.
The company expects to extract 125,000t of ore grading a handy 1.8g/t gold, for a conservatively calculated 6100 ounces after recovery at Munda.
Processing is set to kick off in September at Black Cat's 1.2-million-tonne-per-annum Lakewood facility, about 100 kilometres up the road from the project, with the pit and all ore expected to be processed by February next year.
The deal is a strategic triumph for the company in the desert mining region, where mill capacity is scarcer than water. By locking in Lakewood's processing power, Auric sidesteps a critical bottleneck, ensuring its gold hits the market without delay to capitalise on the $5000-plus per ounce Australian gold price.
The deal is also strategic for Black Cat. As the company's Fingals and Majestic mines ramp up, the Lakewood Mill has spare capacity to process third-party ore, aligning perfectly with its 'more gold, sooner' strategy.
Munda has a 3.65-million-tonne resource grading 1.23g/t gold for 145,000 ounces at a 0.5g/t gold cut-off, making Munda one of the largest undeveloped gold resources in the region. The company says its first 40,000t ore parcel from a smaller starter pit is slated for September, with one or two additional campaigns to follow, wrapping up by early next year.
A 2023 scoping study on the deposit, utilising a conservative $2600 per ounce gold price, projected that a mouth-watering $76.9 million in surplus cash would flow from a higher-grade 1.716Mt resource at 2.2g/t.
With gold now trading north of a blistering $5000 per ounce, the financial upside for Munda's future main pit could be an order of magnitude bigger than projected.
The starter pit is expected to deliver gold at an all-in sustaining cost of $2635 per ounce to generate a quick $5.3 million based on an earlier $3500 per ounce price estimate. By pre-stripping now, Auric is also slashing future costs by building a buffer against market volatility and gaining vital insights into the orebody ahead of full-scale production in 2026.
Management plans to turn its attention to optimising and planning a main pit expansion targeting this broader resource as soon as cash flow begins arriving from the starter pit campaign.
The agreement also builds on Auric's recent momentum, including a fresh $1.4 million asset acquisition from WIN Metals to secure nickel rights, water access and a fully-fledged mining camp at its flagship project.
This acquisition ensures Auric has full control over logistics and essential services at Munda, de-risking operations through secured water supply - a crucial resource in the arid Widgiemooltha district.
Auric has already had remarkable success at its Jeffreys Find gold mine near Norseman.
Mining at Jeffreys Find concluded in January, with 27,642 ounces already produced across two stages. The project has now generated more than $105 million in gross gold sales.
Auric's share of cash surplus from the final campaign is forecast to be $11–12 million, adding to the $8.1 million already received and positioning the company with one of the strongest cash balances among its WA gold peers.
The company's final 60,000t batch from Jeffreys Find is set to deliver up to 3000 ounces of gold, adding $4.5 million to its coffers and bolstering its war chest for a Munda assault.
The company's latest quarterly report underscores Auric's momentum, revealing a net profit before tax of $4.1 million for the 2024 financial year - a 212 per cent year-on-year increase - and a 76 per cent rise in revenue to $8.5 million.
Total assets climbed 62 per cent to $21.6 million, while cash at March quarter-end sat at $7.5 million, all before its recent equity raise.
English told Bulls N' Bears that the company's crucial toll treatment deal would secure the commercial pathway for Munda, ensuring Auric fully captures the exceptional revenue opportunity presented by record gold prices.
He said combined with cash flow from Jeffreys Find and its acquisitions pipeline that includes the Lindsay's gold project and the Burbanks mill, Auric was 'on track for a year of substantial growth'.
With millions banked from the wildly successful Jeffreys Find toll-mining campaign, the rising unhedged WA gold producer will apply the lessons learnt to owner-operated mining at the much larger Munda.
As it shifts dirt at Munda and Black Cat fires up its mill, the partnership will mark a key piece in Auric's dream progression to become a standalone gold mining operator with its own mill and mining capabilities.
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