Pantoro and Capricorn Metals both had a productive June 2024 quarter, with Pantoro seeing a substantial gold production increase and Capricorn continuing its exploration efforts at the Karlawinda and Mount Gibson gold projects in WA.
Pantoro
Pantoro’s Norseman gold project in the eastern Goldfields of WA produced 20,805 ounces (oz) of gold during the quarter, a 1570oz increase quarter-on-quarter.
This resulted in Norseman achieving its sixth consecutive quarter of production increases.
Pantoro credited the achievement to “a combination of increased ore supply from the high-grade zones in the Scotia open pit, ongoing growth at the OK Underground Mine, and increased processing plant throughput”.
“Commencement of development of the Scotia underground mine on May 9 was a major milestone during the quarter, with excellent ground conditions encountered to date,” Pantoro said.
“Development was slightly ahead of schedule by the end of the quarter with a total of 314 metres developed during the period.”
The Norseman processing plant continued to exceed Pantoro’s expectations, processing 305,273 tonnes of throughput at a 1.2 million tonnes per annum run rate.
“Operations ran smoothly throughout the quarter with availability of 99.3 per cent and processing recovery continued to meet DFS (definitive feasibility study) expectations at 93.6 per cent which is a strong result given recoveries have been maintained at the higher throughput,” Pantoro said.
The company has also identified additional low-cost opportunities to further increase the plant’s throughput.
Following a successful equity raise, Pantoro implemented a growth program for Norseman that is targeting production growth through drill definition and development of multiple additional high-grade underground mines.
“Pantoro aspires to add at least two additional underground mines to the Norseman mine profile during the next two years, displacing lower grade open pit and stockpile ore with high grade material, thereby increasing production to (more than) 200,000 ounces per annum once the new mines are developed and fully operational,” Pantoro said.
Pantoro closed the June quarter with $103.9 million in cash and gold.
Capricorn Metals
It was a quarter full of exploration for Capricorn, with 238 holes for 29,232 metres of resource extension, regional exploration and mine development drilled across Mount Gibson.
Exploration activities at Mount Gibson focused on progressing the extensional and infill resource drilling at the S2, Orion, and Lexington pits that commenced in January 2022.
The program also aimed to progress near mine exploration drilling at prospects such as Capricorn, which is adjacent to the Mount Gibson trend.
“The drilling at the Capricorn prospect is the first drilling conducted by the company there, (which) has validated the historical data and increased confidence for inclusion in the next ORE (ore reserve estimate) update,” Capricorn Metals said.
Since January 2022, Capricorn has drilled 3005 holes for 298,455 metres at Mount Gibson.
Capricorn also completed a reverse circulation (RC) drilling program at Karlawinda and the Bibra, Southern Corridor and Berwick deposits during the quarter.
A total of 141 holes were drilled for 24,063 metres, with the drilling designed to infill deeper parts of the mineral resource estimate.
“Capricorn exploration has identified highly prospective, camp scale gold targets, in a proven world class geological setting,” Capricorn said.
“The project has a number of high-quality, under explored prospect areas with significant gold mineralization all nearby to the operating +2Moz (more than two million ounces) Bibra mine.”
Looking ahead, Capricorn plans to commence a regional drilling program at Karlawinda in the September quarter. The program will comprise 25,000 metres of aircore drilling and 18,000 metres of RC drilling, and will target prospects close to the Pilbara – Yilgarn craton margin.
“These areas are interpreted to be in similar geological settings prospective for Bibra style and intrusion related mineralization and includes multiple gravity-high and surface sample anomalies along magnetic corridors with known gold occurrences,” Capricorn said.
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