The refurbishment is expected to take approximately three to six months to complete by a crew of up to 10 people.

Once refurbished, the plant will have a production rate of 650,000 tonnes of gold per annum.

Brightstar managing director Bill Hobba said the company was very pleased with the result of Como’s report.

“We are delighted with the outcomes of Como’s report into the Brightstar mill’s refurbishment and upgrade, which confirmed our expectations of a low capital-cost solution that will underpin plans for us to fast-track the Brightstar project into production,” Hobba said.

“At the upgraded oxide processing capacity of approximately 650,000 tonnes a year, our mill will be almost twice as large as originally envisaged.”

The refurbished plant will accept resources from Brightstar’s three major deposits – Alpha, Beta and Cork Tree Well – all within 60 kilometres of each other.

These deposits have a combined mineral resource of approximately 445,000 ounces of gold.

The most expensive items of refurbishment include crushing and screening electronics, as well as a new feed bin, lime silo, and leach tanks.

All of these items placed at or above $100,000, while a new head and trunnion of ball mill 3’s trunnion bearing costing $250,000.

Hobba said Brightstar will continue towards production, thanks to Como’s assertion of the plant refurbishment.

“We now look forward to getting on with the job of completing our resource work and associated mine design work at the Brightstar project – including a final cost estimate for the mill work – as part of our plans to becoming a profitable gold producer,” Hobba said.