Projects
Last updated: March 2008
Higginsville
The Company's flagship project, the Higginsville Gold Project, is currently in production.
Avoca acquired the Higginsville project in June 2004. It is situated between the regional mining centres of Kambalda and Norseman in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
Avoca has since had considerable exploration success with the discovery of Trident, located 200m north of the underground workings associated with the previously mined out Poseidon South open pit.
The results of a feasibility study conducted in 2006 confirmed the Company's view that Trident will develop into one of Australia's premier new generation gold mines.
Key outcomes of the Trident Feasibility Study include:
- Initial Probable Reserve of 3.4Mt @ 5.3 g/t gold for 581Koz.
- Initial Indicated Resource of 3.5Mt @ 5.8 g/t gold for 655Koz.
- High conversion of Indicated Resource to Reserve at 89%.
- Initial reserve mine life of four years to 2011.
- Nominal annual production rate (post mine establishment) of 1Mt of ore for 160 - 190Koz per annum.
- Life of Mine cash operating costs of AUD$369/oz.
- 142Koz of Inferred Resources and numerous "unclassified" ore grade intersections at Trident will extend mine life well beyond initial reserve.
Avoca announced on 18 December 2007 the results of its JORC resources update for the Higginsville Gold Project. The JORC resources inventory for the Higginsville Gold Project has increased by 246,000 ounces to 11.7Mt at 3.6 g/t for 1,350,000 ounces, representing a 23% increase from the resource base reported in December 2006.
| Indicated | Inferred | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cut off Grade | Tonnes (kt) | Grade (g/t) | Ounces (koz) | Tonnes (kt) | Grade (g/t) | Ounces (koz) | Tonnes (kt) | Grade (g/t) | Ounces (koz) | |
| Trident | 3,521 | 5.8 | 655 | 837 | 5.3 | 142 | 4,358 | 5.7 | 797 | |
| Western Zone 1 | 2.0 | 2,298 | 5.0 | 370 | 272 | 2.8 | 25 | 2,570 | 4.8 | 395 |
| Eastern Zone 1 | 3.0 | 751 | 4.9 | 118 | 751 | 4.9 | 118 | |||
| Athena 2 | 3.0 | 472 | 11.0 | 167 | 565 | 6.4 | 117 | 1,037 | 8.5 | 284 |
| Chalice | 457 | 5.3 | 77.6 | 457 | 5.3 | 78 | ||||
| Chalice Deeps 4 | 3.0 | 457 | 5.3 | 77.6 | 457 | 5.3 | 78 | |||
| Fairplay Area | 1,376 | 1.8 | 80 | 1,673 | 1.6 | 88.5 | 3,049 | 1.7 | 169 | |
| Fairplay 2 | 0.8 | 1,083 | 1.9 | 66.6 | 444 | 1.9 | 26.9 | 1,527 | 1.9 | 94 |
| Fairplay East 2 | 0.8 | 293 | 1.4 | 13.4 | 211 | 1.3 | 8.9 | 504 | 1.4 | 22 |
| Vine (64%) 2 | 1.0 | 967 | 1.6 | 49.7 | 967 | 1.6 | 50 | |||
| Pipeline 4 | 0.8 | 51 | 1.8 | 3 | 51 | 1.8 | 3 | |||
| Palaeochannels | 1,079 | 2.0 | 70.4 | 49 | 1.9 | 2.95 | 1,128 | 2.0 | 73 | |
| Pluto 2 | 1.0 | 535 | 1.9 | 32.5 | 14 | 1.2 | 0.55 | 549 | 1.9 | 33 |
| Mitchell 2 | 1.0 | 330 | 1.8 | 19 | 24 | 1.4 | 1 | 354 | 1.8 | 20 |
| Mitchell 4 2 | 1.0 | 214 | 2.8 | 18.9 | 11 | 3.8 | 1.4 | 225 | 2.8 | 20 |
| Other | 84 | 1.7 | 4.5 | 582 | 1.7 | 31.1 | 1,310 | 1.2 | 51 | |
| Mousehollow 4 | 0.8 | 426 | 1.6 | 22.3 | 426 | 1.6 | 22 | |||
| Pioneer 2 | 1.0 | 84 | 1.7 | 4.5 | 110 | 1.6 | 5.8 | 194 | 1.6 | 10 |
| Eundynie 4 | 0.8 | 46 | 2.0 | 3 | 46 | 2.0 | 3 | |||
| LG Stockpiles 4 | 644 | 0.7 | 15 | |||||||
| Total | 6,060 | 4.2 | 809.9 | 3,141 | 2.6 | 265 | 10,302 | 3.5 | 1167 | |
|
1 QUANTITATIVE GEOSCIENCE PTY LTD, LBC RESOURCES AND AVOCA RESOURCES APRIL 2006 2 LBC RESOURCES AND AVOCA RESOURCES 2006 & 2007 4 RESOLUTE LIMITED 1998 |
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Trident Resource
Total Trident resources have increased to 5.0Mt @ 5.8 g/t gold for 927,000 ounces, representing 130,000 ounce or 16% increase on the previous Trident resource announced in December 2006. Increases to the Trident resource resulted from the discovery of the Apollo Zone and Poseidon E-veins; and updates and extensions to the Athena and Eastern Zone surfaces.
All of the 376,000 ounce Inferred Resource, which is not able to be used for Probable Reserve (JORC) estimates, lies adjacent to the capital development planned for Trident, and therefore will likely be mined without the need for significant additional capital expenditure once the Inferred Resources are upgraded to Indicated following the completion of underground diamond drilling.
- Project infrastructure scheduled for completion by June 30 2008 include: a 1Mtpa treatment plant; 200 person village; services, buildings and site infrastructure; 100 MW power station; 1.5 GL borefield; mine workshops; electric and light vehicle workshops; and fibre optic communications link to Perth. The Avoca Board were confident that significant additions to the Higginsville resource and reserve base will develop over the near to mid term. Consequently, the capital that has been committed will support the Higginsville Gold Project for a +10 year mine life.
- The Trident deposit is a typical Eastern Goldfields gold deposit with standard mining and processing technology and therefore lower development risks than some other developing operations.
- Major underground mining contract was awarded to ACM Pty Ltd. A 1Mtpa treatment plant EPC contract was awarded to GRES Pty Ltd. The contract carries a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) of $49.2M. Construction remains on target for June 2008 commissioning and within budget.
- Trident underground development has commenced with production from ore drive development totalling 15,120 t @ 3.1 g/t gold for 1,507 ounces to the end of the December 2007 quarter.
- Agreement was reached with Chalice Gold Mines (CGM) to acquire 100% of CGM's Chalice and Higginsville project, consolidating Avoca's strategic control of one of WA's premier gold mining districts.
- Avoca acquired Two Boys Gold Mine located 1.5 km south of Poseidon South Pit.
- Avoca received the "Explorer of the Year" award at the 2007 Australian Mining Prospect Awards held in Sydney.
![[map]](images/projects/trident-map.gif)
Mt Fisher
Avoca's 100% owned Mt Fisher Gold-Nickel Project is located 420km north of Kalgoorlie and 80km east of the world-class Jundee Gold Mine in the north-eastern goldfields. Avoca's project area totals 740km² in one contiguous tenement package which controls the entire southern portion of the Mt Fisher greenstone belt. This belt lies immediately to the west of the prolific Yandal greenstone belt that hosts the Jundee, Bronzewing and Darlot gold deposits.
A compilation of previous exploration data reveals a large 7km long mineralised structural corridor trending NNW through the central part of the project. This broad corridor is highly anomalous in regolith-hosted gold along its entire length with some of the more significant intercepts quoted below:
- 12m at 4.92 g/t Au
- 9m at 2.28 g/t Au
- 2m at 13.74 g/t Au
- 16m at 1.53 g/t Au
- 8m at 2.89 g/t Au
- 3m at 8.01 g/t Au
- 2m at 7.57 g/t Au
- 4m at 2.65 g/t Au
Bedrock testing of these large supergene gold anomalies is limited to only a handful of RC and diamond drill traverses. Data compilation is continuing and follow-up drilling is planned for the forthcoming year.
The project also exhibits considerable nickel potential in the form of a 5km strike of the highly prospective komatiite unit that is currently being explored to the north and south by BHP Billiton.
Western Australian Encounter Resources Limited Uranium JV
Encounter 80%, Avoca 20%
The joint venture alliance between Encounter Resources Limited and Avoca was set up for the exploration of uranium deposits in Western Australia. Each of Encounter Resources' 9 uranium projects is subject to the joint venture whereby Avoca retains a 20% contributing interest with an election to dilute to a royalty on any individual tenement.
Encounter has pegged highly prospective ground for calcrete hosted palaeochannel-type uranium deposits immediately adjacent to BHP-Billiton's Yeelirrie deposit near Wiluna as well as in the Officer Basin area on the eastern margins of the Yilgarn Craton. Other calcrete projects include Leonora Regional, Meekatharra and Regional South West. A large tenement portfolio in the Bangemall basin is prospective for unconformity related uranium deposits.
Encounter 60%, Avoca 40%
Encounter has earned a 60% interest in the uranium rights only to the Wiluna South project on Lake Way located 20km south of Wiluna.
The project covers approximately 12km of the Lake Way drainage system and is located between Nova Energy's Lake Way uranium deposit to the north and their Centipede deposit to the south. Nova recently announced a JORC compliant Inferred Mineral Resource for these deposits of 15.5Mt grading 0.058% U3O8 for 9000t of contained U3O8.