The former CEO Rob Ryan envisaged that Youanmi would be a regional processing hub for stranded refractory gold deposits.
That seemed a little far fetched at the time but the soaring price of gold has now made the hub concept profitable.
Rob’s vision is now becoming reality with huge potentail.
The first proof is that gold from the Bells Chambers project will be trucked 70 kms to be processed at Youanmi.
This is medium depth open pit resource 722,000 tonnes @ 1.31 g/t Au for 30,500 ounces,
Bell’s Chambers was never seen as anything but a stranded asset but the price of gold has dramatically changed that outlook.
At the current spot price, the AISC margin will be around $2,000 oz to be divided between Venus Metals (10% to prospector) and Rox.
The Rox Board must ensure shareholders get our fair cut out of this deal stitched up between Rox director Hogan (also Venus CEO) and his Board colleagues.
The next cab off the rank could be Wiluna Gold (WMC).
That’s right!
Even though Wiluna has its own plant, the only viable pathway for investors to recoup their losses is to find a third-party processor.
Wiluna has been in administration for 2 years and has accumulated an impairment of around $300 million.
Despite a positive PFS no one wants to take on the debt, refinance and restart it.
The refractory resource is a whopping 44.6mt @ 3.69 g/t for 5.24 million gold ozs.
Wiluna is 320 kms from Youanmi over good roads.
The AISC margin on Wiluna Gold would be $2000 oz + and Rox would have the upper hand in negotiation.
The only other prospect is DEG’s far-distant refractory mill.
Ironically, under different ownership, Youanmi ore was planned to be trucked to Wiluna for processing,
Part of the old Youanmi infrastructure was relocated there.
In preparation for being a regional hub, Rox will need a large capacity mill that can cater to both Youanmi and third-party ore,
This will increase Capex, but the increase in free cash flow would be huge.
@ Roxstar Jones. Yes, the graph is looking very positive.
(20min delay)