Everest Metals to produce first gold

Everest Metals has made the difficult leap from gold explorer to producer – albeit only on a smallish scale for now. The company has started processing an 8000-tonne bulk sample to kick off gold recoveries at its Revere gold project, 90km northeast of Meekatharra in WA in a bid to generate early cashflows and better define a maiden resource.

After completing the installation of a 10-tonne per hour “Gekko” gravity gold processing plant onsite, processing operations are underway with initial concentrates pulled in preparation for testing.

The assay results will determine the plant’s final fine-tuning.

The Gekko modular processing plant is designed as a low-cost operating unit that uses gravity-based technology without much loss of efficiency.

Earlier metallurgical tests using the same ore confirmed the plant was able to reach an 88 per cent recovery rate.

In preparation for the current work, mobile jaw and cone crushers were earlier moved onsite to start crushing and screening the gold-laden dirt.

Consequently, 8000 tonnes of material is now finely crushed to under 5mm.

After the configuration has been completed the plant will gradually ramp up to full capacity to eventually process a further 28,000t of ore on top of the 8000t already stockpiled and waiting to be put through the mill.

Sitting in WA’s Murchison region, the Revere project is part of Everest’s 36,000t bulk sampling initiative, targeting a 700m section as part of what could potentially be a 7km mineralised gold system.

The decision to start production by processing a bulk sample came about because of earlier excavation work done at the project using test pits.

The samples contained significant amounts of visible nuggety gold in quartz reefs and the host rock with one 80kg sample grading as high as 1195 grams per tonne gold - 47 per cent of which was visible coarse gold.

Although a good problem to have, it made resource estimates difficult to pin down given the nuggety nature of the ore.

As Everest works through the initial 8000t bulk sample - with grades reaching 33g/t in spots - it will be killing two birds with one stone.

The company will generate significant early cashflows and reconciliations from processing the ore will provide more data to enable it to deliver an accurate maiden JORC-compliant resource by mid-2025.

This is another significant step to delivering our maiden JORC mineral resource estimate for Revere. The planned air core drilling early in 2025 will test areas on strike to better understand the full potential of the high-grade mineralisation within the Revere reef system.’’

In addition to processing the bulk sample, Everest will shortly move onto the next phase of its exploration program that includes 5500m of systematic air core (AC) drilling.

The AC drilling campaign is slated to begin early next year and the company has high hopes of finding more near surface high-grade gold zones, which could be added to the existing resource base.

Revere’s tenement package spans about 171 square kilometres. Gold is generally found in the saddle and fault reefs that repeat up to seven times throughout the area.

Everest has confirmed an average grade of 2.5g/t gold based on cyanide analysis.

The results also support the findings of an earlier 2108 drilling program by Mineral Commodities, which covered 8845m across 194 holes.

The campaign identified potential gold mineralisation of 2.5 to 4.1 million tonnes of ore, grading 1g/t to 2.5g/t, with an estimated resource of 334,000 ounces of gold.

As the rampant gold price, trading at US$2647 (A$4117) per ounce, continues to pique the interest of explorers and punters alike, Everest appears to be hitting its straps as a producer at just the right time.

With cash from bulk sample gold sales expected to start pouring in, the company may decide to expand its drilling program. If the early numbers start to stack up, who knows how much more of the precious yellow metal Everest will be able to pull out cheaply.

Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: matt.birney@wanews.com.au