- Aeris Resources (AIS) sets its sights on developing three new production sources at its Tritton Copper Operation in New South Wales
- Aeris revealed its production guidance for Tritton over the next two financial years and is bringing three other deposits into production to support this
- The company is allocating $50 million in FY22 to move into production and a further $15 million to explore three deposits not yet development ready
- AIS is also extending the Cracow Gold Operations’ mine life after upgrading its ore reserve and mineral resource, and highlighting expected production
- The miner is also progressing drilling at the Constellation deposit which has yielded positive copper, gold and silver results
- Company shares are up 14.3 per cent to trade at 24 cents at 1:36 pm AEST
Aeris Resources (AIS) has welcomed today’s session with multiple updates on its projects in New South Wales and Queensland.
Constellation
The miner received assays for five out of 18 diamond tails that were drilled to extend 18 reverse circulation (RC) holes. These RC holes had to be abandoned at the Constellation deposit in New South Wales.
Assays from the combined RC and diamond tail holes include 61.6 metres at 5.12 per cent copper, 0.8 grams of gold per tonne (g/t), 4.7g/t silver from 44 metres, 12.5 metres at 11.14 per cent copper from 45 metres, as well as 23.7 metres at 2.93 per cent copper, 0.87g/t gold and 5.5g/t silver from 113.3 metres.
Copper mineralisation was also extended to 300 metres and remains open along strike and down plunge.
While the turnaround time for assays is longer than usual, Aeris is proceeding with further RC drilling at the deposit which includes 19 holes to test high-grade copper and strike extensions to the south.
Tritton
Aeris Resources is looking to develop three new production sources at its Tritton Copper Operation in New South Wales.
The Tritton underground mine began operations in 2005 and was followed by the Murrawombie underground mine in 2016.
As outlined in AIS’ June quarterly report the mines produced a combined 22,987 tonnes of copper in FY21 which aligned with AIS’ revised guidance of 22,500 to 23,500 tonnes.
However, Aeris revealed production levels from these mines over the next few years will reduce and new ore sources will be brought into production.
By the end of FY22, the company hopes to produce between 21,000 and 22,000 tonnes of copper at the Tritton operations and plans to increase this to between 22,500 and 23,500 tonnes by the end of FY23.
To achieve this, Aeris is allocating $50 million in FY22 to develop the Budgerygar deposit, the Avoca Tank underground mine and the Murrawombie Pit cut-back into producing assets.
Executive Chairman Andre Labuschagne commented on the plans for Tritton.
“We believe there’s more copper to be found on the Tritton tenement package,” he said.
“The recent discovery of the Constellation deposit has validated that view and having established infrastructure and processing capability reduces the time to production for new discoveries by years, and sometimes decades.”
In addition, Aeris has a $15 million budget to explore the Constellation, Budgery and Kurrajong deposits to gain a better understanding of them, and target a maiden mineral resource and ore reserve towards the end of FY22.
Cracow
Aeris Resources is also looking to extend the Cracow Gold Operations in Queensland.
The company acquired Cracow in July 2020 with one of its main objectives being to identify how to run the operation differently so more gold can be mined.
Recently, it upgraded the operation’s mineral resource to 3.9 million tonnes at 3.1g/t gold and 2.3g/t silver for 390,000 ounces of gold and 290,000 ounces of silver.
Cracow also has an ore reserve estimate of 690,000 tonnes at 4.1g/t gold for 90,000 ounces.
In FY21, the operation produced 73,685 ounces of gold which was in line with AIS’ guidance of 70,000 and 75,000 ounces. The company has since upgraded its FY22 guidance to between 67,000 and 71,000 ounces of gold.
Aeris has also provided a production guidance for FY23 which is between 60,000 and 65,000 ounces.
Mr Labuschagne commented on the company’s plans for this operation.
“When we first acquired Cracow, we targeted spending $13 million on exploration activities over the first two years of ownership,” he said.
“As a result of the extensive geological reinterpretation work undertaken in FY21, we remain convinced the Cracow tenement package remains highly prospective for discovery of more gold.”
Around $9 million will go towards resource definition drilling and $4 million will be used for greenfields exploration.
Company shares were up 14.3 per cent to trade at 24 cents at 1:36 pm AEST.