Brightstar skips straight to DFS to fast-track Laverton gold development

Brightstar upgrade PFS work to DFS level to accelerate development of its Menzies and Laverton gold projects
Move will allow the company to make an investment decision in early 2025
Focus on developing Laverton first rather than Menzies, which will be developed separately

Special Report: Brightstar Resources has clearly demonstrated its confidence in the Menzies and Laverton gold restart projects by choosing to upgrade its current pre-feasibility study work to a more detailed definitive feasibility study.

This will allow the company to fast-track development of the two previously producing areas by enabling a final investment decision to be made in early 2025.

Brightstar Resources (ASX:BTR) credited this move to positive results from its drilling and PFS workstreams, with the former providing sufficient geological, metallurgical and geotechnical information for ore reserves to be declared at the Lady Shenton System, Fish and Lord Byron deposits.

These will in turn be the first mines developed by the company.

Its gold inventory currently stands at 28.7Mt grading 1.6g/t gold for 1.45Moz of contained gold across its portfolio, thanks in no small part to the June 2024 acquisition of Linden Gold Alliance that increased resources at the Laverton hub to 862,000oz at 1.8g/t gold.

Mining is already underway at the Second Fortune mine – part of the Linden acquisition – with ore being toll treated at Genesis Minerals’ (ASX:GMD) Gwalia processing facility.

The company also owns the Brightstar processing plant that is currently on care and maintenance, a 60-man accommodation camp and non-processing infrastructure about 30km southeast of Laverton, WA.

Earlier this week, ongoing drilling reinforced the potential to both grow and upgrade resources at its projects, returning high-grade assays of up to 45.76g/t gold from the Pericles and Stirling deposits, which are adjacent to the historical Lady Shenton open pit.

This adds to previous shallow, high-grade intersections at the Link Zone, which confirmed mineralisation within the targeted gold optimised pit shells at shallow depths across the Westralian Menzies, Merriyulah and Golden Dicks deposits.

The Laverton and Menzies hubs. Pic: Brightstar Resources

Development plans

BTR’s decision to proceed with a DFS without a PFS was also fuelled in part by the identification of an opportunity to fast-track gold production at the Fish underground deposit ahead of open pit mining complexes at Lord Byron, Lady Shenton and Cork Tree Well.

This will be backed by previously mined existing stockpiles at the Beta and Lord Byron projects in Laverton, which will provide an important low-cost ore source for blending with Second Fortune and Fish underground ore in the ramp up.

It is also engaged with suppliers including mining contractors, accommodation camp builders and camp service providers to support the advanced timelines.

The company will focus on a low Capex approach with the DFS to detail the refurbishment of the existing Laverton processing infrastructure and development strategy of the project areas and deposits comprising the Laverton and Menzies Hubs.

While BTR had originally planned to start operations at Menzies before transitioning to Laverton to reduce capital requirements, this approached changed with the integration of the Linden Gold team and assets into its business.

“With the combination of the Brightstar and Linden assets, it is logical to consolidate and prioritise the Laverton Hub given the logical operational and geographic synergies potentially generating meaningful gold production from a single operational hub, with the Menzies assets to be developed separately to build Brightstar into a multi-asset gold producer in 2025,” managing director Alex Rovira said.

Next steps

BTR will continue to progress the DFS workstreams with advice, gap analyses and cost variations received from key consultants to upgrade the previously announced PFS workstreams into definitive feasibility study levels of accuracy.

Additionally, information from its ongoing drill programs will feed into the feasibility workstreams.

The company currently has two reverse circulation rigs operating at the Lord Byron and Fish deposits at the Jasper Hills project, while a diamond rig is at Second Fortune completing the final three holes targeting orebody extensions at depths.

This article was developed in collaboration with Brightstar Resources, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.