Ore is now being processed at the Lorena gold mine carbon-in-leach (CIL) processing plant.

Approximately 4400 tonnes of six-grams-per-tonne of gold grade ore has been transported to Lorena for processing, with 2200 tonnes being crushed and fed into the plant so far.

Gold recoveries at Lorena are expected to be above 90 per cent.

Agate Creek’s operations are currently suspended due to flooding and road closures caused by heavy rainfall from ex-Tropical Cyclone Imogen and ex-Tropical Cyclone Kimi.

Laneway’s current mining campaign at Agate Creek will see the company extract 43,000 tonnes at 6.5 grams per tonne of gold, which is being conducted via two high grade parcels.

The company expects to mine and process the second ore parcel after the end of the wet season, which is also when it anticipates operations at Agate Creek to continue.

Laneway’s long-term aim for Agate Creek is to develop on-site processing for the larger commercial grade mineral resource of the defined 471,000 ounces of gold.

Chairman Stephen Bizzell said despite the suspension at Agate Creek, Laneway is focussed on approvals for the Whittle deposit, which contains higher grade ore, further exploration projects and options for on-site processing of Agate Creek’s gold resource.

“We are pleased to have achieved the first gold pour from the current mining campaign and look forward to the completion of the processing of the ore that is currently at the Lorena processing plant,” Bizzell said.

“Whilst mining activities continue to be temporarily suspended due to the recent heavy rainfall and flooding, the company continues to progress other activities in preparation for a busy 2021 as we focus in parallel on the planning, approvals and development of the larger volume of high grade ore encompassed by the larger Whittle pit shell, undertake drilling programs targeting over 60 regional exploration targets and then turn our attention to options for onsite processing of the almost half a million ounces of gold resource already identified at Agate Creek.”