If RXL was able to produce gold from the near surface in 2 years from now that would be a huge and it might happen .
Yes round two. It certainly could happen.
Has anyone else noticed how odd it is that Rox are completing a Scoping Study due to be released before June.
Gone are the cowboy days when ASX juniors produced scoping studies based on modelled (inferred gold) that has never been adequately drilled to become indicated or measured.
A scoping study must have at least 70% indicated or measured or the ASX will not approve it. In other words a strong material basis is needed for a scoping study.
But the Deeps is nowhere near 70% and looking at the target zones Rox is not going to DD the main pit at depth any time soon where a lot of inferred ozs are.
So what are they scoping?
IMO Rox is scoping the Near Surface Resource which is all the gold at Grace, Link, Junction, Hanging Wall etc down to a depth of approx 160m.
That is open pit and cheap to mine.
To be able to produce a scoping study by June tells me that the Near Surface Resource drilling was completed last year (so already paid for) and that Rox is likely to announce a Near Surface Resource Reserve rather than a Resource.
When the Scoping Study is released it will be solidly based on a Reserve so be very credible.
Just guessing but a Reserve of 800,000 - 1m oz au @ 4g/t seems possible.
The AISC from mining those open pits will be under $1,000 oz au.
At todays POG that generates a profit of AU1,670 oz Au.
Mining open pits will be straightforward but a plant is not.
Costs in WA are soaring and there are labour shortages.
Some time ago Rox dismissed the transportable Gecko plant as too expensive but now it makes a lot of sense. The Gecko is made in modules, it’s factory manufactured and transported to the mine site on giant semi trailers. I have talked with Gecko and they say factory to mine and operational in 6 months.
The other option to get into production quickly is to revisit renovating the existing plant. The plant is to some extent modularised, eg the crusher unit could be replaced with a new one.
I’m confident that the Rox team is looking at the price of gold and working out how to get the Near Surface Resource into production asap.
Next year is possible.
All my opinion DYOR
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