Romarco Minerals (R-V, RTRAF-O) has nearly doubled resources at the past-producing Haile gold mine in South Carolina, prompting the company to change its mine plan design to 7,000 tons per day from 4,000 tons.
Measured and indicated resources now come in at 35 million tonnes grading 1.34 grams gold per tonne for 1.5 million oz. gold. Another 26.2 million tonnes grading 0.81 gram gold, or 678,000 oz. gold are inferred. That’s a 92% increase over the historic resource.
Romarco expects to finish a feasibility study this October for the historic Haile mine, which has seen production on and off since the 19th century. The company had planned to complete it earlier, but the change in the mine plan design required extra time.
In addition to a building a 7,000- ton-per-day (6,348 tonnes) circuit, the new design will allow the company to add a second 7,000-ton circuit if needed. Under the previous design, the company was hoping to produce 100,000 oz. gold per year.
The new resource does not include recent exploration drilling. In a statement, Romarco president and CEO Diane Garrett said the company would be periodically updating the resource estimate as it explores the mineralized zone, which is open in three directions.
“We will continue an aggressive exploration program focused on adding gold ounces and are working to secure two reverse-circulation drill rigs for an increased drilling discovery rate,” Garrett said.
Romarco bought the Haile mine last year from Kinross Gold (K-T, KGC-N). The plan is to sequentially mine six small open pits scattered about the property at an average stripping ratio of 5.25, including prestripping. Operating costs were pegged at US$350 per oz. with capital costs of US$94 million — numbers that will likely change in the feasibility study coming out in October.
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