Focus Minerals (ASX: FML) today provided its annual report to shareholders for the year ended 31 December 2021.
The year was underpinned by a twin focus of continued Resource development at both the Coolgardie and Laverton gold projects in WA, and the board approval of the resumption of mining plan at Coolgardie.
Late in December 2021, the company secured $25.5 million through an entitlement offer and a US$10 million unsecured loan from cornerstone shareholder, Shandong Gold, that will part-fund the resumption of mining at Coolgardie and provide working capital at Laverton.
Focus said it aims to update and refine all major components of the Coolgardie 2020 PFS in 2022. This includes the update of mineral resource estimates, mine design and process engineering, procurement, mine to mill scheduling, tailings storage, infrastructure refurbishment and overall project costing.
The exploration program at Coolgardie consisted of 10,739m of reverse circulation and 10,591m of diamond drilling. Exploration efforts delivered Mineral Resource upgrades at Big Blow, Happy Jack, Alicia and Green Light deposits. The overall Mineral Resource at Coolgardie now sits at 38.18Mt@ 2.1g/t for 2.55Moz of gold.
Focus said it would continue to explore and assess other deposits within the project to extend the Mineral Resource and project mine life, and to improve project economics.
A further 2,244m were completed for hydrogeological purposes related to mine feasibility studies.
In his letter to shareholders, Focus chairman Wanghong Yan said, “We have begun the process of applying for the requisite government approvals and permits related to operation activities at Coolgardie, with the Greenfields Mining Proposal submitted in December 2021. Early 2022 should see us commencing the tendering process for several critical components of the Coolgardie Gold Project, such as mining and the process plant refurbishment contracts.”
Focus’ exploration program at Laverton during 2021 brought the total Mineral Resource to 61.78Mt@ 1.8g/t for 3.65Moz of gold.
Resource and exploration drilling during the year comprising 105 RC holes for 13,647m and 15 Diamond drilling holes for 2,844m. The company said it is aiming for a Resource update at several deposits in the second half of 2022 that will incorporate additional drilling data.
Mr Yang said, “As the scope of the Laverton Stage 1 PFS only included five deposits, the Focus team will continue to convert more of the Mineral Resources into a JORC 2012-reporting standard to significantly enhance the scale, economics, and value of Laverton.
“The Focus team is carrying out a number of the preliminary activities and assessments required to advance the proposed resumption of mining and processing operations.”
