Westgold restarts high-grade gold mining at Great Fingall, WA

Australia’s Westgold Resources has restarted high-grade golden mining astatine the Great Fingall mine, adjacent Cue successful Western Australia (WA), delivering the archetypal accumulation from this historical golden reef successful much than 100 years.

The restart of mining astatine Great Fingall marks a large milestone for Westgold, opening entree to caller high-grade ore successful zones past mined betwixt 1891 and 1918.

The institution stated that it had fired the archetypal stope astatine Great Fingall, commencing extraction from reef sections that antecedently yielded 1.2 cardinal ounces (moz) of golden from 1.9 cardinal tonnes (mt) of ore.

Great Fingall is forecast to execute afloat accumulation by 2027, delivering astir 500,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) of high-grade ore to Westgold’s Cue processing hub.

This volition augment provender from the adjacent Big Bell mine, which provides much than 1 cardinal tonnes per annum.

The Great Fingall mine’s restart aligns with Westgold’s 2026 fiscal twelvemonth (FY26) guidance, which projected archetypal ore from higher-grade stopes successful the 2nd 4th (Q2) of FY26.

The mean archetypal golden grades from the archetypal stopes are supra 3 grams per tonne (g/t).

The determination signifies Great Fingall’s displacement from improvement to production, reinforcing its relation arsenic a cornerstone plus wrong Westgold’s Murchison operations.

The excavation is expected to ramp up progressively done FY26, targeting a combined dependable authorities accumulation output of astir 40,000 tonnes (t) per period by precocious FY27.

Ore produced from Great Fingall volition supply high-grade feedstock to the Cue processing hub, complementing Big Bell’s bulk tonnage and supporting improved operating margins.

Westgold volition proceed underground drilling into the little unfastened extents of respective lodes astatine Great Fingall, aiming to widen the existent six-year excavation life.

The excavation benefits from beardown infrastructure and is being tally nether a three-year underground mining declaration with Barminco.

Westgold managing manager and CEO Wayne Bramwell said: “The recommencement of stoping astatine Great Fingall is simply a arrogant accomplishment for each astatine Westgold and the WA underground mining community.

“This historical mine, which produced implicit 1.2moz of golden astatine outstanding grades successful the aboriginal 1900s, has present been revitalised arsenic a modern, high-grade cognition done our strategical concern successful the Murchison portfolio. The high-grade output from Great Fingall volition complement the measurement from Big Bell, strengthening our operations and creating lasting worth for our shareholders.”

In April this year, Westgold Resources divested its Lakewood Mill processing installation adjacent Kalgoorlie, Australia, to the Black Cat Syndicate for a full information of A$85m ($53.2m).