Focus Minerals this morning published its 2020 Annual Report. A summary of Focus non-executive chairman Dianfei Pei’s Chairman’s Report is below:
“I would like to reflect on our many achievements over the past year as we continued to advance our goal to become the next gold producer in Western Australia.
“Our achievements in 2020 have been significant and value-enhancing, a credit to the Focus team particularly given the challenges faced by the Company, and the mining industry in general, because of COVID-19.
“During 2020, the Focus team delivered outstanding results from the Pre-Feasibility Study for the Coolgardie Gold Project, which relied only on resources from the Greenfields, Brilliant and Bonnie Vale deposits.
“The PFS demonstrated the robustness of Coolgardie. Focus will continue to explore and assess other deposits within the precinct such as the CNX and Alicia deposits, with an ambition to extend the mineral resource and therefore the mine life and improve the project economics. The Board will also continue to explore funding options for Coolgardie.
“During 2020, we also materially advanced our Laverton Gold Project. We expanded our tenement footprint as well as completing an extensive exploration drilling program.
“In total, we completed 5,089m of reverse circulation (RC) and 12,261m of diamond drilling, which resulted in a 21% increase in Laverton’s total mineral resources. The PFS for a Stage 1 development of Laverton was advanced in 2020 and finalised in early 2021.
“The on-going success at our projects was strengthened during the year by a A$20 million working capital loan facility provided by our major shareholder, Shandong Gold Group Co. Ltd (SD-Gold).
“The facility was a sign of confidence and trust by SD-Gold in the Focus team’s ability to continue to deliver strong results for all shareholders.
“The additional working capital allows Focus to advance Coolgardie by carrying out a Definitive Feasibility Study at the same time as maintaining the pace of progress at Laverton.”
