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New Murchison Gold has declared a maiden fully franked dividend worth approximately $27 million after completing its first year of gold ore sales, with its cash balance climbing to $220.4 million at the end of the September quarter.
The board resolved to pay a dividend of 0.25 cents per share following 12 months of operations at the company’s Crown Prince gold mine in Western Australia, during which 65,789 ounces of gold contained in ore were sold.
Cash increased by $18.7 million during the quarter, with New Murchison remaining debt-free and unhedged.
The milestone comes despite a period of elevated waste stripping and lower-grade ore sales, as mining progressed towards consolidating the Stage 1 and Stage 2 open pits at Crown Prince.
New Murchison chief executive officer Alex Passmore said the quarter represented an important milestone for the operation.
“The end of the September quarter represents four complete quarters since mining and ore sales commenced at Crown Prince operations,” Passmore said.
“Pleasingly, 65,789 ounces of gold in ore was sold during the period.”
New Murchison sold 160,483 tonnes of ore grading 2.2 grams per tonne (g/t) gold during the quarter, containing 10,837 ounces, representing a 30 per cent decline in contained gold sold compared with the June quarter.
The reduction was largely attributed to restricted access to Crown Prince’s central high-grade ore zone during pit consolidation, with 11 days of weather-related production interruptions also affecting operations.
Total material movement increased 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter to approximately 1.86 million bank cubic metres, reflecting additional waste stripping and the commencement of mining at Cloudkicker.
The Stage 1 and Stage 2 Crown Prince pits were subsequently consolidated in October, establishing a single Stage 2 operation as mining progresses towards deeper, higher-grade ore.
“During the September quarter we undertook a substantial amount of waste stripping as Stage 2 Crown Prince pit met our earlier Stage 1 pit,” Passmore said.
“This sets the mine up for a strong period of production with ore availability progressively increasing.”
Attributable all-in sustaining costs reached $4972 per ounce against an attributable gold price of $6055 per ounce under the company’s ore purchase agreement with Westgold Resources.
As previously reported, the arrangement allows New Murchison to sell ore for processing at Westgold’s Bluebird Mill, providing an established pathway to market.
“Costs of waste stripping are included in our operating costs and accordingly unit costs were impacted in the September quarter by lower production and a higher overall mining cost number,” Passmore said.
“We look forward to the increased production this period of consolidation will bring”
Meanwhile, mining commenced at the nearby Cloudkicker open pit in late June, with the first ore sold during the September quarter.
The development follows high-grade drilling results at Cloudkicker reported in July, which strengthened the deposit’s potential as an additional source of ore within the existing Crown Prince operations.
New Murchison expects Cloudkicker to contribute approximately 20,000 ounces of gold contained in ore over the next 12–18 months.
Exploration also continued across the broader Garden Gully gold project, where drilling at Airstrip East more than doubled the interpreted mineralised strike extent from approximately 310m to 730m, with mineralisation remaining open along strike and at depth.
The latest work follows the company’s June resource expansion, while recent high-grade results at Lydia continue to support potential future satellite mining opportunities.
New Murchison is also progressing technical studies into a possible underground operation beneath Crown Prince, supported by a mineral resource of approximately 150,400 ounces at 3.2g/t gold.
With six drill rigs active at Garden Gully at the time of the quarterly report, the company is positioning its expanding exploration pipeline alongside the next phase of production at Crown Prince and Cloudkicker.
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