London listed NQ Minerals PLC says that haulage of gold bearing material from the Beaconsfield Wetlands environmental cleanup area to the Beaconsfield gold processing plant has now commenced. NQ Minerals Chairman, David Lenigas, comments: “We now have a fleet of 6 trucks moving a significant amount of gold bearing material from the Wetland area, located to east of the Beaconsfield townsite, to the Beaconsfield processing plant area.” Beaconsfield is 40 km north-west of Launceston in Tasmania, Australia.

He adds: “This material has been deposited in the Wetlands area over the 100 years of historic mining at Beaconsfield and has been considered for many years to be an environmental issue that needed to be addressed. NQ plans to modify the Beaconsfield processing plant over the coming months to extract the gold from this material as a key component of our mine re-opening plans. Regular updates on tonnage stockpiled at the plant, gold grades and metallurgical recoveries expected will be announced as material information becomes available.”

Over 100,000 t of 3 g/t gold grading contaminated soil is being extracted from the Beaconsfield wetlands as part of the environmental rehabilitation of the land. The Beaconsfiled processing plant is being refurbished with gold production to commence in Q3 2021. This is Phase 1 of the project – Phase 2 will see re-opening of the underground mine with a new 3.6 km decline to the 430 m level. The feasibility study on this is to be completed Q2 2021 after which the new decline box-cut is set to commence Q4 2021. The contained gold resources underground at the 415 m to 1,500 vertical metre level are 1.454 Mt grading 10.3 g/t for 483,000 oz of gold.