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Resources Top 4: Gateway’s $14m gold win and Besra nabs Anthill for Jugan gold up today as Besra appoints Matthew Anthill to lead Jugan...

Cameron Drummond

3 min read

August

Besra Gold (ASX:BEZ)

Veteran mine developer Matthew Antill has been appointed to lead BEZ’s flagship 970,000oz Jugan gold project, part of the company’s broader 3Moz Bau gold field in East Malaysia.

Antill comes with quite the pedigree, having had senior roles at Lafayette Mining Philippines, Rox Resources' Radio Hill, Citic Pacific’s Sino Ironand Saracen Metals’ Thunderbox mine.

More importantly, he’s got a wealth of experience working in Malaysia in the mining sector – commencing and commissioning multiple open pit mines.

The timing couldn’t be better, as BEZ is leading up to a definitive feasibility study (DFS) for Jugan – pivotal for commercial development.

Current infill drilling is looking to get ounces into the higher confidence measured and indicated categories ahead of the DFS to give it more attractive production metrics. So far it’s returned a top assay of 7m at 6g/t gold from 90m.

What’s more immediately interesting though, is the construction of the Jugan pilot plant, which will trial various batch processing methods to find out the most economical way of proving up the Bau gold field.

The pilot plant will churn through 50 tonnes per today in testing and further infill drilling is being planned.

News of Antill’s appointment was welcom.ed in trade today, as BEZ shares shot up 41.6% to swap at 8.5c at the time of writing.