BML Ventures to mine Phillips Find for Horizon Minerals

Kalgoorlie-Boulder mining contractor BML Ventures has another gold project on its books — Horizon Minerals’ Phillips Find mine north-west of Coolgardie. Horizon Minerals, chaired by prominent Kalgoorlie-Boulder businessman Ashok Parekh, told the ASX on Wednesday the joint venture would mine two open pits at Phillips Find, with first gold being targeted for the December quarter. The Horizon deal is the latest in a string of successes for BML, which is also involved in mining operations for Auric Mining (at Jeffreys Find near Norseman), Matsa Resources (Devon near Laverton), and Brightstar Resources (Selkirk near Menzies). Horizon said BML would undertake management, technical, operational and maintenance roles, and fund all costs, with net cash flow after the asset recovery and repayment of costs to be split 50:50. The company’s managing director and chief executive Grant Haywood said BML Ventures had a proven track record of delivering projects in the Eastern Goldfields. “BML will be managing and sole funding the Phillips Find joint venture, which greatly de-risks the project . . . particularly from a financial perspective,” he said. “This agreement does not require any capital from Horizon and allows us to keep our focus on our Boorara start-up. “The Cannon project will be paused until sufficient cash flows are generated from our two production sites, Boorara and Phillips Find, to sole fund rather than joint venture. “We look forward to generating cash over the next 19 months from two gold mining projects in this very strong gold price environment.” Horizon acquired Phillips Find, 45km north-west of Coolgardie, in its recent merger with Greenstone Resources. The company said it produced about 33,000 ounces of gold between 1998 and 2015 from three open‐pit operations — Bacchus Gift, Newhaven and Newminster. It said Phillips Find had a mineral resource estimate of 730,000 tonnes at 2.3g per tonne for 54,360oz, including 540,000t at 2.4g/t for 41,650oz in the indicated category. Horizon said the plan was to cutback the Newminster and Newhaven open pits across about 11 months. The company said ore would be processed across eight months at the nearby Greenfields mill operated by FMR Investments. Horizon said the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety was assessing the mining proposal, with mining starting this quarter subject to the permit being approved.