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The company says its Vertigo deposit is capped to above 150m and will be first cab of the rank for drilling, set to cover Vertigo, Hannaford and White Dam North, all requiring minimum working capital.
White Dam now anchors the pivot to cashflow, with a recent $13 million capital raise bankrolling the restart process and continued drilling at Alice River.
Pacgold Limited managing director Matthew Boyes said: “With minimal capital expenditure required to leverage existing permits and infrastructure, we are rapidly restarting operations, through early key contractor engagement and with re-lining of the solution ponds to begin imminently. All reagents required for restart of pad irrigation have been purchased and we anticipate the first pregnant solutions to start flowing from the lead pad to the plant by mid-December.”
The fully operational mine, located just 80kms southwest of Broken Hill, has remains a highly prospective gold system with the real kicker being the existing gold still sitting in the heap leach pad.
By simply re-crushing and retreating that material, Pacgold says it expects to quickly fire up production and unlock a handy stream of early cashflow as soon as February next year - all without the heavy lifting of a full-scale mining restart.
Large-scale heap leach operations are a rare breed in Australia, but Zijin Mining’s Binduli project near Kalgoorlie proves just how powerful they can be. In 2024 alone, the operation produced 263,000 ounces of gold from 8.2 million tonnes of ore, highlighting a cost-efficient approach to scaling up extraction from low-grade deposits for maximum return.
The restart overlays Pacgold’s Queensland campaign, where rigs continue to chase scale at the Alice River gold system and the newly farmed-in St George gold-antimony play.
With gold prices sitting pretty at US$4000 (A$6100) per ounce, White Dam is primed for a swift ramp-up. The low-capex restart turns residual ounces into working capital, freeing Pacgold to drill deeper at Alice River and St George while the South Australian operation quietly funds its next leg of growth.
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