The Porphyry deposit lies on the Edjudina Station Pastoral Lease approximately 48km North of the Carosue Dam processing plant. The Porphyry mining area has a long history of gold mining, having been mined intermittently over the past 75 years. Historical production from the Porphyry mine is 1.33mt @ 3.36g/t producing 144,000 oz from both underground and surface operations.
Porphyry is a large mineralised body with published resources of around 500,000 oz and Open-pit reserves of 142,000 ounces. Phase 1's pit shell design has a strip ratio of 1.6:1 with the overall open-cut Strip Ratio of 3:1.
This deposit is highly leveraged to the gold price, with significant expansion potential, including underground. Previous underground development was conducted within the ore zone via a room and pillar underground mining method, with minimal waste (capital) development. The underground mine ceased development in the 1980’s due to a depressed gold price. Stage 2 operations at Porphyry is likely to consist of underground mining based on a continuation of development within the high grade core of the resource.
A new section of haul road is planned to be constructed between the Safari Bore Haul road and Porphyry mine, connecting Porphyry into the existing haul road network. The proposed haul road will also access the Wallbrook and Enterprise deposits. The road has a planned length of 25km.
