Prodigy Gold has lodged a mineral lease application for the 8.6Mt Hyperion deposit in the NT’s Tanami region. Pic: Getty Images
Prodigy goes for gold with NT mineral lease application
Mining
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- Prodigy Gold lodges mining lease application
- The application covers 19.8km2 of ground in NT’s Tanami region
- A proposed mine plan is in its early stages of development but assumes the project will be developed using standard open pit mining techniques
Special report: Prodigy Gold has lodged a mineral lease application covering the 407,000oz Hyperion gold deposit, bringing the project closer to development ready status.
Located in the rich Tanami region, host to Newmont’s 20Moz Callie mine, the proposed mining licence will also cover Hyperion’s immediate strike and depth extensions, nearby prospects and space required for infrastructure.
It’s a shrewd move, putting Prodigy Gold (ASX:PRX) ahead of the game when it comes to the often lengthy process of obtaining approvals for mining ops.
It covers about 19.8km2 of ground within the wider Tanami North asset area in the NT, allowing space for the establishment of the required site infrastructure including waste dumps, haul roads, workshops, camp and run of mine stockpile pads.
The proposed mine plan is in its early stages of development but assumes Hyperion will be developed using standard open pit mining techniques with ore processing occurring offsite using traditional carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing.
Additional work will be required to finalise any future mine development, such as resource development drilling to increase the confidence in current resources, metallurgical test work, completion of a detailed mining study and environmental studies for final approval of a mine management plan.
Potential for underground development
Hyperion boasts an indicated and inferred resource of 8.6Mt at 1.5g/t gold for 407,000oz of gold, based on the assumption of an open pit mining operation which will form the basis of future studies for the project.
The mineralisation at the Hyperion, Tethys and Hyperion South lodes strikes east-west and is associated with a structural break between regional north-south trending thrust faults.
At the Hyperion lodes, this is a shear zone hosted in differentiated dolerite, which is typically intruded by granitic dykes.
The project is around 60km to the northeast of the Central Tanami plant which is a part of the Northern Star’s (ASX:NST) and Tanami Gold (ASX:TAM) Joint Venture and adjacent to the Hyperion Fault which hosts the Groundrush deposit and Crusade deposits.
Drilling results received during 2024 have highlighted the potential for future underground development of the project with a peak result of 10m at 15.9g/t gold achieved in hole HYRC240042, ~170m below surface.
Metallurgical testwork completed on the Suess lodes of the deposit indicates recoveries of over 95% achieved on all material types with additional testwork to be undertaken on samples collected from the Hyperion and Tethys lodes as part of the 2024 drilling campaign.
Approvals on the agenda
“Over the last few years Prodigy Gold has focused on increasing the understanding of our key projects in the Tanami North project area, particularly the Hyperion and Tregony resources,” PRX managing director Mark Edwards said.
“Considering the expected lead time required to obtain approvals for future mining, Prodigy Gold decided to commence the process by lodging the mineral lease application.
“Work can now begin on obtaining future mining approvals through the approval of a Mine Management Plan with the Department of Lands, Planning and Environment,” he said.
“We are also excited about the potential for underground mining at the Hyperion deposit, which was highlighted by the results of hole HYRC24004 of 10m at 15.9g/t gold.
“Future drilling campaigns for the project will further investigate the underground potential as it would significantly increase the potential longer-term development framework of the project.”
Edwards added regional exploration work on nearby prospects like Pandora and Brokenwood will be important as any discovery could add additional feed stock to any future mine.
“This work can be completed in conjunction with the exploration planned for Hyperion,” he said.
This article was developed in collaboration with Prodigy Gold, 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.
