batavia mining article (minebox news - current)

Batavia Finishes Deflector Study

Gullewa


Diversified resource group, Batavia Mining Limited yesterday announced the completion of the Scoping Study on its 100%-owned Deflector Gold-Copper Project in Western Australia. The study confirmed the viability of a low-capital development leveraging off existing infrastructure at Gullewa.

The Mining Study component, which was undertaken on the total Mineral Resource resulted in an optimized open pit (337,000t at 5.73g/t gold and 2.1% copper) followed by a proposed underground mining operation to extract a mining inventory of 1.06M tonnes at 6.5 g/t gold and 1.1% copper (to a depth of -80mRL).

Batavia believes this would support a 250,000tpa milling operation over an estimated 6.5 year mine life, producing on average 37,000 ozs of gold and 2,200 tonnes of copper per annum over the life of the mine. Based on the current resource, the project will deliver 1.4M tonnes at 6.25g/t gold and 1.32% copper over the life of the mine.

The total capital cost is estimated at $15.3M, comprising $13.8M for the processing plant and infrastructure, and $1.5M for mine development – with the refurbishment of the existing crushing and milling circuit at Gullewa, the proposed addition of a copper concentrator and the upgrade of the existing camp from 40 to 86-person capacity representing the principal capital components.

Batavia’s Managing Director, Greg Durack, said that following completion of the Scoping Study on schedule, the company had set an aggressive target of completing the Bankable Feasibility Study by August 2006.

“We have already commissioned preliminary work for the Bankable Feasibility Study and we will now fast-track the study with definitive metallurgical test work on Deflector ore already underway,” Mr Durack said.

“In addition, we have recently commenced the resource in-fill and extension drilling program at Deflector, which is targeting a further significant increase in the Deflector resource inventory from 775,000 gold equivalent ounces to 1 million gold equivalent ounces.”

“Our objective is to advance the project towards production as rapidly as possible, in order to take advantage of the current strong commodity price environment, in conjunction with ongoing exploration to further increase the resource base and enhance the overall project parameters.”

- 04 Apr 2006