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Brightstar Resources has completed underground mining at its Second Fortune operation in Western Australia, accumulating high-grade gold stockpiles to support the start-up of its new Laverton processing plant in 2027.
The September quarterly report confirmed underground mining at Second Fortune concluded in August, in line with the company’s existing life-of-mine plan, following six years of operations without a lost-time injury.
The mine has since transitioned into care and maintenance, with approximately 62,000 tonnes of stockpiled ore grading 3.1 grams per tonne (g/t) gold across Second Fortune and Fish.
The combined stockpiles contain approximately 6200 ounces of gold, providing feedstock for the commissioning and ramp-up of Brightstar’s 1.5-million-tonne-per-annum Laverton processing plant.
Second Fortune produced 17,500 tonnes of ore grading 3.41g/t gold during the quarter, containing approximately 1923 ounces.
Meanwhile, the Fish underground mine remained in care and maintenance, with diamond drilling completed to improve grade-control confidence and support a planned restart of underground operations during the first half of 2027.
The operational transition comes as Brightstar progresses construction of its broader Goldfields project, which remains on schedule and within its approved budget.
As previously reported, the Laverton processing plant is targeting first gold production in the June quarter of 2027, following significant progress across civil works, structural steel installation and carbon-in-leach infrastructure.
Brightstar incurred $35.4 million in Laverton mill construction expenditure during the September quarter, with the project targeting average annual gold production of approximately 75,000 ounces over an initial six-year mine life.
The company also ended September with $58.7 million in cash and $161.4 million in undrawn net bond proceeds, providing total liquidity of $220.1 million.
More recently, Brightstar secured $82 million in placement commitments, including a $30 million investment from Genesis Minerals, to accelerate exploration and development activities at its Sandstone gold project.
The additional funding follows a series of resource upgrades that lifted Sandstone’s total gold inventory to approximately 3.6 million ounces.
At Two Mile Hill-Shillington, Brightstar also commenced a 6500m deep-drilling campaign targeting extensions to the Shirvington Zone beneath the existing 1.45-million-ounce resource.
Meanwhile, metallurgical testwork supporting Sandstone’s pre-feasibility study (PFS) returned average gold recoveries of 94 per cent through a conventional gravity and carbon-in-leach processing flowsheet.
The testwork identified no significant deleterious elements or refractory characteristics across the deposits tested, strengthening confidence in the proposed processing configuration.
Brightstar is expecting to deliver the Sandstone PFS and a maiden ore reserve during the December quarter, alongside further mineral resource updates.
With the Goldfields project progressing towards production, Brightstar said it intends to use future operating cash flows to support the longer-term development of Sandstone.
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