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Andrew Todd
Broken Hill Gold has just banked its third gold pour from existing heap leach ore at its White Dam project in South Australia, producing a 5.43-kilogram doré bar containing an estimated 174 ounces of gold from remnant ore.
The cash flow from the pour will be ploughed back into a significant plant refurbishment program as the company charges towards a potential restart of open-pit mining at its nearby Vertigo deposit early next year.
The move comes as the company progresses a prefeasibility study (PFS) for the Vertigo pit, which it hopes to complete in the first quarter of 2027 ahead of a final investment decision shortly after. The timing looks right, with the gold price still trading at elevated levels of US$4,160 an ounce (A$6000 an ounce), providing a solid economic tailwind for a low-cost, heap-leach restart operation like White Dam.
Management’s decision to get stuck into Vertigo as soon as possible was triggered by a string of shallow, high-grade gold hits from drilling outside the existing open-pit shell earlier this year. That work culminated in a recent resource upgrade to 2.3 million tonnes grading 0.74 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 54,795 ounces, providing a solid base for a quick kick-off to a new mining phase.
‘Achieving our third gold pour at White Dam is another fantastic milestone, confirming the ongoing value we can unlock.’
Broken Hill Gold managing director Matthew Boyes
With fresh oxide ore from a restarted Vertigo pit potentially hitting the leach pads by early next year, the company is getting its house in order and refurbishments underway. Proceeds from the latest pour will fund a full reline of the existing heap leach pad and ponds, with irrigation set to pause in late October while the company tackles age-related degradation and legacy design faults.
Upgrades to the recovery circuit are also nearing completion. A new carbon-in-column (CIC) tank is being fabricated to replace the existing tank, while all other tanks will be sandblasted and epoxy-coated in the downtime. A new fume extraction system in the gold room is already installed and operational, ready for a fresh stack of doré.
Broken Hill Gold managing director Matthew Boyes said: “Achieving our third gold pour at White Dam is another fantastic milestone, confirming the ongoing value we can unlock from the existing heap leach ore while generating near-term cashflow.”
The 1500 square kilometre White Dam project sits 80km west of Broken Hill in South Australia’s Curnamona Province, a region gaining serious attention from major copper and gold players, just as the company has unearthed its own copper-gold system at depth.
Recent drilling by Broken Hill beneath its oxide resources in the project’s north has uncovered fresh, new copper-gold sulphide discoveries at depth, including a recent standout 28-metre hit at its Icebreaker prospect, running 2.4g/t gold and 0.7 per cent copper from 93m, with the emerging sulphide system remaining open at depth and along strike.
Having recently spun out its Queensland gold and antimony assets to focus exclusively on White Dam, Broken Hill is running a two-pronged game – squeeze near-term cash from its existing infrastructure and oxide ore while using the proceeds to chase the potentially much bigger sulphide prize lurking below.
As fresh ore moves onto the horizon, the company has also completed the design of a major heap leach pad expansion, which is now ready to go to tender. The two-phase expansion is designed to add a further 3.5 million tonnes of leaching capacity. The first phase will deliver 2.4Mt of capacity, with the second adding another 1.1Mt.
With cash flowing from the latest pour, a clear pathway to restart and the drills already turning to collect final samples for the PFS, the company is rapidly positioning White Dam as a seamless self-funding project with serious upside.
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