Advanced gold and copper explorer, Alice Queen Limited, has commenced a Scoping Study at its Horn Island Gold Project, located approximately 17 kilometres off Queensland’s coast in the Torres Strait, just south of Papua New Guinea.
The target of the Scoping Study is to advance the company’s understanding of the economics of a potential open-pit mining operation at the historic Horn Island gold mine which ceased operation in 1989.
The existing open pit Inferred Resource (JORC 2012) of 7.9 million tonnes at 1/9 grams per tonne of gold for 492 thousand ounces (see ASX release 02/08/2018) will be updated as part of the process and this will form the basis of the Scoping Study.
Alice Queen advised that the existing Inferred Resource forms part of the ‘Excluded Zones’ which remain separate from the Joint Venture with St Barbara.
The Scoping Study will combine results from the Phase One Infill drilling campaign, updated metallurgical test work results, the pilot-scale ore sorting test work undertaken using TOMRA and an updated process plant flowsheet and design to provide an insight into the potential future economics of the Project.
Alice Queen’s Managing Director, Andrew Buxton, said they are elated to be launching a scoping study to assess the potential of the Horn Island open pit resource, part of the Excluded Zones, outside of the St Barbara JV, to assess a potential future mining operation.
“It has taken a significant amount of time and effort to reach this stage and we hope it will validate the exploration work to date. Our recently announced interim RC Infill results give us confidence that this will be the case.”
“It is also timely to remind our shareholders that we start this study with the backdrop of significant existing infrastructure at Horn Island. We believe that, having the study overseen by Peter Fairfield (Miner Insight Pty Ltd), with input from GR Engineering Services, TOMRA Ore Sorting and Dale Sims (Dale Sims Consulting), we will deliver a comprehensive and high-quality report which will significantly advance the project. We also look forward to announcing to the market tomorrow our proposed acquisition, the subject of our recent request for trading halt,” Mr Buxton said.
