Detailed planning and early-stage scoping for the Main Pit have been pencilled in for the first quarter of 2026, with the early numbers appearing to stack up well.
On paper, Auric’s Main Pit already ticks plenty of boxes. The current resource stands at 3.65 million tonnes grading 1.23 grams per tonne (g/t), equivalent to 145,000 ounces at a 0.5g/t cut-off, a solid foundation for a small but profitable operation. Drop that cut-off to 0.2g/t and the ounces balloon to 189,000 across the indicated and inferred categories, underlining just how much life remains in the system.
When Kalgoorlie-based Minecomp crunched the numbers at Munda in 2023, it did so using what now looks like a stone-age gold price of just A$2600 an ounce. Even under those conservative assumptions, the scoping study outlined a 1.716-million-tonne operation at 2.2g/t, capable of generating a healthy A$76.9 million in undiscounted surplus cashflow.
Roll the clock forward to today’s record-breaking gold market and those figures suddenly feel like the dress rehearsal, not the main event.
The company’s measured, step-by-step approach – pulling ore from the starter pit despite its initially higher strip ratio while gold prices are booming – is likely to have struck a chord with a market increasingly wary of juniors charging headlong into big builds without the comfort of early cash flow. Added to that, hiring its own mining fleet and toll treating the material has allowed Auric to sidestep the cost and complexity of owning a mill, instead monetising ore quickly and recycling capital back into the business.
With mining up and running, haulage rolling and processing locked in, Auric appears to be making good on its promise to morph into a sustainable mid-tier gold miner from this year onwards.
In a sector where near-term delivery often separates the winners from the talkers, Munda is shaping up as a timely reminder that small gold miners can still generate value quickly assuming they keep it simple and get on with the job.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
