gold sales article in mining weekly

Ero Mining sells first gold from Queensland alluvial mine

By: Esmarie Swanepoel
30th April 2010

PERTH (miningweekly.com) ASX-listed junior Ero Mining has poured its first gold at its Georgetown alluvial gold mine, in Queensland, ten months after acquiring the project.

The company on Friday reported the sale of an initial 42,5 oz of gold bullion to an Adelaide refiner, representing its maiden production from the reinvigorated mine.

Anticipated revenue from the sale is expected to be around A$43 800 once refining has extracted the pure gold and silver credits.

While this is a very modest sale, it is an important step for the company and supports our belief in the quality of the Georgetown acquisition and its potential to generate meaningful future cashflows, Ero MD Kevin Lines said.

The gold was acquired during the initial stages of an ore extraction programme, which reported recovered gold grades of between 0,5 g/m and 0,6 g/m.

Ero has also launched a series of sampling programmes to quantify the volumes and grades of alluvial gold mineralisation within its 13 mining leases at Georgetown.

There are currently no delineated alluvial gold resources within the project area, that could be classified under the code of the Joint Ore Reserve Committee. However, the area of the mining leases has been subjected to extensive bulk sampling, by both costeaning and test pitting, with the recoverable gold grades determined by processing of these samples through a gold recovery plant.

Meanwhile, the company has applied for a fourteenth mining lease, 7 km west of its current mining operations, where it intends to start a bulk testing programme, following the completion of an indigenous land-use agreement.

The new lease would bring Eros total exploration holdings at Georgetown to more than 520 ha.
Edited by: Mariaan Webb