Well, WGX has moved up to 6 underground mines (though to be fair, 2 of the 6 are at varying degrees of 'mining', with Great Fingall currently under development with the potential for ounces to be added to FY24 production (but not included in guidance), and Big Bell deeps also under development already, but... I don't believe there has been any mention of early ore before FY25). WB has been quoted as saying 6-7 U/G mines is a good fit for the current plants, so... perhaps 1 more (though WGX has already stated they are looking at bringing other U/G mines back into production including Caustons and Tritons/Emu).
Sadly, I am having issues with the HC website, so... no ability to add slides from the presentation to this post
Great to see Fender has officially entered production with ounces added in October, though of course, it's only a small contributor to the overall production profile.
LOM plans that are knowns are:
Big Bell - 16 years - 100-130k p.a - AIC $2384
Great Fingall - 8 years - 45k p.a - AIC $1800
Blue Bird - 3 years (my estimate) at 96k. p.a - Unknown....
Paddy's flat - 2 years (my estimate) at 36k p.a - Unknown...
Starlight - 4 years (my estimate) at 45k p.a - Unknown...
Fender - 3-4 years at 26k p.a. -
Total U/G production - 348,000 ounces (mid point, with upside... at a guess 30k-80k higher).
This excludes all low grade stockpiles that are going to be processed or any other source of ore that might be brought into the mine plan in coming years, particularly some oxide ore that could enable any of the 3 plants to run at higher rates (particularly Bluebird and Tuckabianna which from memory can run at higher throughput rates of 20%+ or approx 300-400ktpa higher at Bluebird and 100-200ktpa at Tuckabianna).
So... what is next for WGX.
Organic growth looks to be almost fully fleshed out in the near term, unless they have some early success with their revitalised exploration programs, so... the other option is obviously inorganic.
Yet, WGX is still being a little coy about what FY25 will look like production wise.
The presentation reaffirms that guidance is on track. Though we only have 1 quarter to go off so far.
The slide on what to expect from FY24 is interesting, as it implies that Starlight is going to have a comeback, with an operational update (or at least, I am hoping that is the case). A little surprised we are already looking forward to another update on the exploration at Great Fingall/Day Dawn, though.... I think that also implies some upside to near/medium term production as they get further into developing GF.
I am hoping they can also start providing a clearly picture of the non-production asset exploration, which as explained on slide 33, is about to ramp up. As I have posted previously, WGX literally has a plethora of potential targets to drill, that have not seen modern exploration (ever).
Not sure if I can think of anything that WGX could be doing differently, though perhaps others have some ideas?
(20min delay)