29Metals has announced the award of a four-year underground mining contract to Byrnecut Australia for the Gossan Valley mine at Golden Grove.
The contract enables “operational and commercial synergies”, which include the ability to share equipment and personnel across Golden Grove operations, with Gossan Valley on track for first ore by the end of 2026.
Once production is underway, Gossan Valley is expected to enhance the project’s life-of-mine by providing a replacement, higher grade ore source for declining ore production at the Scuddles mine.
There is also said to be potential to extend mineral resource estimates.
“The award of the mining contract is another significant milestone towards achieving first ore from Gossan Valley by end of 2026,” 29Metals chief executive officer James Palmer said.
“As the second highest grade ore reserve behind Xantho Extended, development of Gossan Valley optimises Golden Grove’s life-of-mine production profile and enhances overall production flexibility as a relatively shallow and independent mining front.”
Located approximately 7km south of the Gossan Hill mine at Golden Grove, the 100 per cent-owned mine was discovered in 2010 and has an initial mine life of six years, with a mining rate of up to 585,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) and ore reserves of 1.2 million tonnes.
Gossan Valley comprises of the Gossan Valley, Conteville and Grassi deposits – as well as Felix which sits outside of the project’s envelope – and has a combined mineral resource of 5.6 million tonnes at 1.1 per cent copper, 5.5 per cent zinc, 0.6 grammes per tonne (g/t) of gold and 18 g/t silver.
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