QMines has released the optimisation and production target for its newly acquired Mount Mackenzie gold-silver project in Queensland, demonstrating that the project can be economically mined through open pit mining.
QMines acquired Mount Mackenzie from Resources & Energy Group in April for $2.485 million. The project joined QMines’ portfolio of Queensland assets, including the Mount Chalmers copper-gold project and the Develin Creek copper-zinc project.
Since then, QMines has been undertaking a pre-feasibility study (PFS) that will include material from Mount Mackenzie, Mount Chalmers, and Develin Creek.
Mount Mackenzie open pit optimisation is ongoing, with the project’s optimisation and production target totalling 800,000 tonnes of oxide material at 1.3 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold and 7.7g/t of silver and 1.5 million tonnes of sulphide material at 1.38 g/t of gold and 9.5g/t of silver.
QMines said the production target estimate, which comprises 90 per cent indicated resources and 10 per cent inferred resources, demonstrates that Mount Mackenzie can be economically mined via open pit mining and hauled to the planned Mount Chalmers processing plant.
“We are delighted with this optimisation results at Mount Mackenzie, which confirms our newest asset to be a high-quality, high-margin open pit operation in the making,” QMines executive chairman Andrew Sparke said.
“The pit shell outlines a substantial tonnage of gold and silver bearing material at surface with a low strip ratio, which is a fantastic outcome for any potential new mine. For our shareholders, this means Mount Mackenzie could deliver significant low-cost ounces into our production profile.”
Mount Mackenzie will be integrated into the Mount Chalmers updated PFS, which is expected to be released in the first half of 2026, and will be part of QMines’ strategy to develop a regional processing hub in central Queensland.
“These results bolster our hub-and-spoke strategy, with Mount Mackenzie’s material contributing to a planned centralised (two-million-tonnes-per-annum) processing plant, we foresee potential for greater throughput and enhanced project economics for the planned development,” Sparke said.
“We now have three advanced deposits that could potentially feed into one processing plant, which is shaping up to be one of Australia’s next long-life, multi-asset copper and gold operations with scale.”
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