Aphrodite Gold Ltd (ASX:AQQ) and Poseidon Nickel Ltd (ASX:POS) have entered into an agreement to evaluate the processing of Aphrodite’s gold resource at the Poseidon Black Swan Processing Facility.
Aphrodite recently released a mineral resource estimate of 1.3 million ounces of gold for its Aphrodite Gold Project, located 65 kilometres north of Kalgoorlie in the Eastern Goldfields of Western Australia.
This includes an open pit resource of 10.2 million tonnes at 1.8 g/t gold for 598,000 ounces of gold.
The company also confirmed gravity gold recovery of 30% and overall recovery of 92% gold concentrate from comprehensive metallurgical testworks.
Aphrodite and Poseidon are aiming to establish a 50:50 joint ownership structure to mine and process the resource.
It is worth noting that the Black Swan Process Facility has the capacity to process over 2 million tonnes of ore per annum.
Aphrodite’s gold resource is located on granted mining leases that are located circa 65 kilometres trucking distance from the Black Swan Processing Facility.
Importantly, delivery of a successful joint operation would transition Aphrodite from an explorer to a producer quickly and at a relatively low cost.
The joint due diligence will consider progressing a definitive feasibility study (DFS) to establish an open pit operation at Aphrodite and producing a gold concentrate at Black Swan for sale to a third party.
Interestingly, the forecast operating cost to transport ore and produce concentrate at Black Swan is estimated at $8 and $23 per tonne respectively which is less than the estimate in Aphrodite’s PFS.
The jointly owned Black Swan Processing Facility would also have the ability to process third party gold resources from within Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields.