Tulla Resources (ASX:TUL) and joint venture partner Pantoro (ASX:PNR) have reported the first gold pour at their jointly held Central Norseman Gold Project, located in Western Australia has been completed.
The 50:50 joint venture reported about 8kg of doré from the gravity circuit was poured on 13 October, and production from the leaching circuit is also underway.
This first pour is culmination of 3 years’ work by Tulla and manager of the unincorporated JV Pantoro, transforming the Norseman Project from a dormant site to a fully operational gold processing facility.
Pantoro also reports the processing plant is now operating reliably with uninterrupted operations for the past 8 days, and mill throughput is expected to ramp up to nameplate capacity of 125t/hr over the course of the December 2022 quarter.
Tulla also says mining operations at the Scotia Mining Centre open puts and the OK Underground Mine are progressing well with around 160,000t of ore sticks on the ROM and available for processing.
Tulla Resources Executive Chairman Kevin Maloney said the company is excited to be producing gold again.
“This is a momentous occasion for one of Australia’s iconic gold mines, the resumption of production at Norseman with the first pour from the JV with Pantoro.
“This is a momentous occasion for one of Australia’s iconic gold mines, the resumption of production at Norseman with the first pour from the JV”
This is a tribute to the focus and commitment of Tulla Resources and our JV partner Pantoro, who have also managed the process with great dedication and acumen and deserve the company’s appreciation for their sterling efforts.
We are excited for all involved and especially our loyal shareholders.”
Pantoro Managing Director Paul Cmrlec said Pantoro is pleased to confirm its first gold production at Norseman.
“This represents the culmination of approximately 3 years of hard work. Norseman has been taken from a dormant site with no ore reserves or usable processing facility to fully operational status.
There have been some unexpected delays resulting from minor but frustrating equipment start-up and control programming issues during commissioning, however we are confident that all of those issue have now been resolved and the plant is operating well.
We thank all of our staff and contractors for their dedication to achieving this outcome during the past 3 years, along with our joint venture partner, Tulla Resources.”
The share price of both JV partners was up slightly as of 1pm AWST.
Tulla’s flagship asset is the 50% interest in the Central Norseman Gold Project, a historic gold province near the town of Norseman in the goldfields of Western Australia, which commenced operations in 1935.
A farm-in and joint venture agreement with Pantoro was formalised in May 2019.
The Central Norseman Gold Project is located at the southern end of the Norseman-Wiluna greenstone belt in the Eastern Goldfields Province of the Yilgarn Block in Western Australia, around 725km east of Perth, 200km south of Kalgoorlie and 200km north of Esperance.
The project comprises 155 ‘near continuous’ mining tenements over around 70km of strike covering approximately 750km-square. In excess of 5.5Moz of gold has been produced since 1935, and is considered one of the ‘highest grade, large-scale’ gold projects in Western Australia.
Tulla reports the total mineral resource for the project is 4.8Moz of gold, with an ore reserve of 973,000oz.
The Central Norseman Project is serviced by existing infrastructure supported by the local shire and state infrastructure, with a new 1Mtpa carbon leach processing plant now in production.
Tulla Resources is a diversified resource company founded in 2007 when Norseman Gold acquired Central Norseman Gold Corporation and changed its name to Tulla Resources in 2020.
The company states its focus is to work closely with Pantoro to bring Norseman back into production, and Tulla says the project provides an opportunity for future production growth demonstrated from exploration program results centred on the Scotia Mining Centre.
Images: Tulla:Pantoro JV & iStock
