MDI recently announced that to operate a profitable mine with their existing mill they need one or more of the following:
Further organic exploration to build on the success achieved in 2020.
Mill feed from other regional explorers, above 1.5g/t head grade, on a toll treat or profit share basis.A corporate transaction of sufficient scale to justify not only the re-commissioning the mill but to upgrade the mill throughput to 750ktpa.
Following is the Bells Chamber's JORC and there are additional higher grade ounces at Range View that could be mixed to lift the overall grade,
Table 1. Bells Chambers Inferred Resource reported at 0.5 gm/t Au and at 1.0 gm/t Au cut-off
Cut-off
Volume
Tonnes
Density
Au
Ounces
1 0.5
142,000
340,000
2.4
1.5
17,000
2 1.0
91,000
219,000
2.4
2.0
14,000
Perhaps 50,000 oz au
Even with a high AISC (truck to the MDI mill) of around $1,500 oz this could be quite profitable at the current gold price.
It should generate a profit of more than $60m, double VMC's current MC.
