Explaurum managing director John Lawton said the study had been expanded to assess a preferred development option for the project – either establishing a standalone operation or having the ore treated at another producer’s facility.

“The study clearly established that a stand-alone operation is the preferred long-term development scenario based on what we believe is the true potential of the project,” he said.

Explaurum conducted the study over its 90%-owned project using a standard drill and blast, load and haul mining methodology commonly used in open pit mining operations.

Lawton said the company felt it was in the best interests of long-term value creation to complete the study, despite the project having only an inferred mineral resource based on minimal drilling.

“Although the scoping study could be considered premature, given the potential upside scale of the project, the results have provided a sensible and well informed development pathway to progress the project.” 

Explaurum’s immediate focus will be an exploration and drilling program to further investigate the Gault deposit, which it said was open in all directions. 

This will include metallurgical test work to optimise plant design, regional soil geochemistry to define near surface mineralisation, structural geology to interpret the regional structure and an infill ground gravity survey over a 4km long trend surveyed in early 2016. 

The program will help Explaurum generate an updated mineral resource by the second half of 2017, with findings to be fed into a pre-feasibility study on the project due at the same time. 

During this second study, Explaurum plans to develop a measured and indicated resource, establish a mining schedule, production rate and process flow sheet and to further assess the potential of the region.

Located in a cultivated paddock 12km southeast of the Wheatbelt town of Narembeen and 300km east of Perth, the Tampia project has an inferred resource of 310,000 ounces gold at a grade of 2 grams per tonne. 

Shares in Explaurum closed 3.3% higher yesterday at 9.5c.