GBM Resources and Round Oak Minerals’ White Dam gold-copper heap leach asset in South Australia, has poured its first gold doré bar.

The achievement follows the completion of the sulphidisation-acidification-recycling-thickening (SART) plant build back in July, which earned GBM its 50% stake in the asset. GBM says the SART plant, and associated copper concentrate production, continues to ramp-up broadly in-line with expectations, while identified optimisation opportunities are expected to drive further expanded production and reduced costs.

White Dam, around 50 km southwest of Broken Hill, is a heap leach operation that, since 2010, has produced about 175,000 oz of gold from heap leaching of 7.5 Mt of ore at 0.94 g/t Au (which was mined from two open pits).

The JV owners say evaluation of the estimated remaining resources of 4.6 Mt grading 0.7 g/t Au for 101,900 oz of gold has commenced to determine the viability of the extraction and leaching of this material.

Peter Rohner, Managing Director and CEO, said: “I would like to thank the Round Oak site team for their ongoing efforts in optimising the SART plant operation. While recent rain has resulted in some minor delays, the additional water is set to drive increased heap leach irrigation and thus higher gold and copper production in the near term.

“We are now working to finalise shipping of the first copper concentrates once the concentrate drying process is completed. The SART plant is meeting its design objectives of removing copper and increasing the recovery of the cyanide solution back into the circuit to increase gold recoveries, which together enhance the overall economics of the White Dam operation.”