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Oct 2014 - MacPhersons Res

MacPhersons Resources Ltd (MRP) – Australia's Next Silver Play Heads towards production of silver, zinc & gold from 2016

  • MacPhersons Resources Limited (MRP) completed a detailed scoping study and raised ~$8.8m in early August 2014, with the aim of completing a BFS on the Nimbus Silver - Zinc Project and Boorara Gold Project by mid-2015, and a target of producing silver and zinc from Nimbus by late 2016, followed by gold from Boorara in 2017.
  • The planned development of Nimbus is in 3 phases (open-cut of oxide/old tailings, transition and primary sulphide); underground at Nimbus; then development of Boorara. While the ore scheduling will influence the resulting production, there are 2 main stages. A gold-silver dore is produced in Stage 1 from blending the old tailings in TSF2 with oxide ore from expanded East and Discovery pits, while Stage 2 moves into the transition and primary ore from open pits & underground, producing silver dore and a zinc concentrate.
  •  A new 480ktpa plant has been designed to be constructed north of the Discovery pit (compared to the original existing 120ktpa plant located SW of the Discovery pit). The actual production depends on the ability to access higher grade ore earlier to enhance the payback. Under our ERA model, production increases to 3.4mozpa Ag & ~18ktpa Zn.
  • The open-cut development of the Boorara goldfield currently follows on from the open-cut mining of Nimbus, with Boorara as a ~1mtpa heap-leach operation whose pregnant liquor is transferred to and processed by Nimbus' Merrill Crowe circuit to result in gold-silver dore. Heap leach production from Boorara could be ~ 25kozpa gold.
  • With a delineated depth of ~850m for some of the lodes, lodes up to ~20m wide, and additional lodes being discovered due to the new model, the deeper drilling is expected to increase reserves and resources and extend the underground life of Nimbus beyond its expected ~7-year life to 2022. The next reserve/resource update is expected in JQ15.
  • Written by: Keith Goode
  • Monday, 01 September 2014