Western Australian gold development company Rox Resources Ltd. has taken another major stride towards production at its Youanmi gold mine, kicking off stripping works at the historic Youanmi Decline and locking in a key engineering contract.
The milestones come as the company flags increased cost certainty and rapidly expanding underground operations, keeping it firmly on track for its first gold pour next year.
Rox Resources CEO Phill Wilding said the company had achieved significant momentum as the financial year draws to a close, particularly with the United North workings now mining strike drives on ore and establishing high-grade stockpiles.
“Within Main Pit, mining is now underway,” Wilding said.
“Stripping has commenced at the historic Youanmi Decline and face support work is now commencing at Pollard in advance of mining the third front for the mine this month.”
The re-establishment of the 1990s-era Youanmi Decline is expected to deliver a faster, lower-cost access route to the main high-grade ore lodes compared to digging a new decline.
Stripping works are being fast-tracked ahead of formal mining activities scheduled for October.
Meanwhile, development at United North has outpaced expectations, achieving a record 343 metres of advance in May using just a single development jumbo.
On the processing front, Rox has executed a fixed-cost engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract with Interquip for the Youanmi processing plant. With bulk earthworks on-site nearing completion, Interquip has already begun mobilising.
Wilding emphasised that fixing the pricing for the plant and major supply contracts provides crucial protection against inflationary pressures, aligning closely with the project’s definitive feasibility study (DFS).
“Fixing the majority of prices for all major contracts provides increased certainty that pre-production expenditure will be in line with our estimates,” he said.
“With the recent debt package, Rox remains in a strong funding position to deliver Youanmi to production on budget.”
