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First gold: Dateline nails historic milestone at Colorado’s nuggety Gold Links mine
Mining
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Dateline Resources has produced its first gold concentrate from the Gold Links mine in Colorado, delivering on a major milestone in the historic gold mining district’s headline revival.
So far Dateline (ASX:DTR) has produced 12t of gold concentrate from Gold Links, the world famous mine which last operated commercially in 1948, and where 150,000oz of gold has been mined from some of the world’s loveliest high-grade veins.
And DTR says there’s still enormously rich potential, with assays from the first three tonnes of concentrate averaging 900g/t Au.
Ore from Gold Links is being trucked 50km to the company’s Lucky Strike Mill, which is running on a 24-hour basis, four days per week largely using lower grade development ore.
It will go 24-7 in May, with Dateline entering an equipment supply agreement with Komatsu to refresh its mining fleet with new or near-new equipment while new experienced personnel to support the fleet and ramp-up of processing rates are being selected right now.
“The amount of concentrate produced to date has been done on a limited work week. We expect production to increase substantially once we start milling on a 24/7 basis,” Dateline managing director Stephen Baghdadi said.
“With the transition to a mine owner operator model and having our own fleet, we can start to plan the development of the balance of our substantial property holdings that make up the Gold Links group of mining claims.
“Whilst we have reached this first production milestone, we have much more to achieve at Gold Links as we install additional processing capacity and ramp up production over the remainder of 2022.”
You make your own luck
Dateline’s Lucky Strike mill is looking the goods already, with not a single major issue identified during its commissioning.
It’s set to expand, with a newly acquired 250t per day mill and flotation circuit being installed and expected to be operating by June 2022.
A long-term path to market is also close to fruition, with Dateline close to securing an offtake partner after a competitive tender process with three parties vying for access. First concentrate sale is expected to be finalised in late April or early May with regular shipments to follow.
Big workers for big work
The deal with Komatsu, which will include trucks, boggers and a jumbo that will be delivered to the Gold Links site starting this month, will also help Dateline transition to an owner operating model, giving improved flexibility about timing ore and development mining as well as high productivity and availability levels associated with the new gear.
Drilling continues
Dateline says it is continuing underground exploration at Gold Links, with recent drilling targeting deeper zones to the north of previous drilling.
Drill core has shown zones of sulphides in line with those expected in the 2150 vein, with samples sent to the lab for processing.
That has come even as underground mining activities ramp up, with two development drives established since the start of the year and stoping now underway.
That has seen high-grade ore head to Lucky Strike for the first time, with stoping to increase over the next month as Gold Links heads 24-7.
This article was developed in collaboration with Dateline 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.
