$77m WA gold mine to open in June

  Avoca Resources’ new A$77m Trident gold underground mine is on track to be commissioned by June this year at Higginsville in Western Australia’s south eastern goldfields region.Avoca’s Managing Director, Rohan Williams said construction work on the mine’s CIL processing plant was now over 83% complete and first stoping had commenced this week on the mine’s Eastern Zone.“The recent wide intersections in Trident’s Eastern Zone of 43m at 10 g/t gold, 14m at 14 g/t, and 16m @ 9 g/t, show the potential in this previously smaller zone for much larger stopes,” Mr Williams said.“We are currently stockpiling ore on surface and anticipate having in excess of 150,000 tonnes awaiting plant commissioning in June,” he said.“Our focus will be initially on bringing into production the large high-grade stopes in Trident’s Western Zone in the second half of this year, targeting an annualised production rate of around one million tonnes per annum.”Avoca is targeting a maiden full year production in Financial Year 2009 of 170,000 ounces of gold, increasing then to 190,000 per annum for a minimum 10-year mine life.“Current cash costs for Trident are estimated at around A$369 an ounce, commissioning is on budget, and, with no forward hedging, Avoca is well exposed to the current strong gold price environment,” Mr Williams said.Avoca currently controls the gold belt between the 15 million ounce St Ives and six million ounce Norseman goldfields.“Prior to the Trident discovery, only 5% of gold at Higginsville and Chalice mines had come from underground, but the emergence of the new Trident-based mining operations will see the Higginsville region emerge as a major gold production centre,” Mr Williams said.