Magnetic’s Lady Julie North 4 has the right ingredients for open pit gold mining

Magnetic Resources’ Lady Julie North 4 deposit has thick, stacked mineralisation suited for open pit mining
Mineralisation from 30m to 400m shows very high ounces per vertical metre – 3700ozpvm with an internal zone from 100-300m at 4700ozpvm.
Further resource and economic upgrades likely as drilling continues to hit gold

Special Report: With a big resource upgrade under its belt, Magnetic Resources has now flagged that the thick intersections of gold mineralisation at Lady Julie North 4 deposit makes it ideally suited for open pit mining.

The deposit, which enjoyed a more than 50% upgrade earlier this month to 1.49Moz of gold, features an exceptional 3700 ounces per vertical metres (ozpvm) from a depth of 30m to 400m.

It gets even better at depth, with 4700ozpvm in an enhanced zone from 100m to 300m. This augers well for the next economic upgrade, which will include an additional 540,000oz and an increased commodity price.

Notably, the enhanced zone corresponds with the proposed open pit set out in Magnetic Resources’ (ASX:MAU) pre-feasibility study from March this year, which had estimated pre-tax IRR and NPV – both indicators of profitability – at 85% and $547m respectively.

The company noted there is a continuous rise in ounces at LJN4 as the sequence progresses from transported material through oxidised and then into fresh rock at 200m.

From 200m to 400m the resource is still of sufficient strength to support a large open pit mining operation.

However, while there are signs of strong mineralisation at depths below 400m, more drilling is required in order to define a mineable underground resource.

MAU also noted that unlike many other resources in WA’s Goldfields region, which have a single mineralised resource that requires underground mining to access at higher costs, LJN4’s stacked lodes and consistent grades provide support for an open pit to greater depths with a pit expansion following each resource upgrade.

Lady Julie North 4 showing ozpvm compared with the Inclined Longitudinal Cross section. Pic: Magnetic Resources

LJN4 and the Laverton project

Confirmation that LJN4 mineralisation lends itself to open pit mining, even at depth, adds further validation to the company’s efforts to focus on the deposit.

Resources at the deposit have climbed from just 110,000oz in June 2022 to a current 1.4Moz.

Drilling to date has identified eight stacked lodes and is expected to deliver further upgrades given recent holes that returned results such as:

23m at 6.3g/t from 317m in MLJDD042
26m at 2.5g/t from 567m in MLJDD039; and
25m at 3.9g/t from 386m in MLJDD048.

And it is not the only large deposit in MAU’s bulging Laverton portfolio.

The company’s broader Laverton project also includes the Lady Julie Central, HN9, Mt Jumbo and Homeward Bound South deposits that all have potential to be large-scale, shallow open pit plays.

This article was developed in collaboration with Magnetic 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.