Rockfire, which increased resources to 208,278 ounces gold and 1.5Moz silver in February, said while the mine could be profitable now, using a gold price of A$2220/oz, the real benefit of the study was to direct additional drilling with the aim of expanding the scoping study by year's end.

 

The preliminary report examined five scenarios, and suggested that small-scale, open pit mining could deliver between $6.8-19.4 million in net positive cashflow. 

 

The study excluded any silver credits, and assessed average grades between 1.26-1.94gpt, depending on pit design. 

 

Its low-cost production scenarios assume Rockfire will be able to utilise one of the nearby mills for tolling, such as Ravenswood, Pajingo or Black Jack.

 

The work defined a number of shallow multiple targets that need to be drilled, likely adding ounces and improving the economics further.

 

Rockfire's first-pass plan covers mineralisation in just the top 70m, but drilling has intersected gold grading up to 16.9 grams per tonne at 400m, suggesting the possibility of significant potential growth over time. 

 

Rockfire intends to fund metallurgical test work to assess recoveries in the coming months.

 

It is also planning infill drilling of Plateau's Central and Eastern Breccias, which contain the resources, extensional drilling is planned of targets within 250m.

 

Recent rock chipping around the area returned up to 16.6gpt gold and 50.4gpt at the Northwest Breccia, and up to 1.89gpt gold and 24.2gpt silver at the Northern Breccia, where were was also strongly anomalous in zinc of up to 0.66%.

 

A high-resolution ground magnetic survey is underway over the new targets, and the resource area,

 

Plateau is Rockfire's flagship project, and sits within the Lighthouse tenement, where the company sees geological similarities to the 1.5Moz Mt Wright deposit, 45km to the north-west. 

 

Recent regional exploration has also flagged up to 9.9gpt gold chips at the Bell Rock prospect, now with a 350m strike length, about 3.5km south-east of Plateau. 

 

Chips grading up to 0.28% copper were recovered at the new Otway prospect, 4.5km northwest of Plateau, with elevated nickel above 800 parts per million, plus an "highly unexpected result" of 0.28% cobalt.

 

The stock has traded between 40.5p-£2.39 over the past year, and closed up 6% in London at 87.5p, valuing the explorer at £7.3 million.