An ongoing assessment of Brightstar Resources Ltd (ASX:BTR)’s Brightstar Processing Facility, which is currently on care and maintenance, southeast of Laverton in WA has valued the plant and associated infrastructure at $60.9 million on an 'as new' replacement value basis.
The valuation follows the release of BTR’s recent scoping study, in which it fielded a positive scoping study for its wholly-owned Menzies and Laverton gold projects, plotting a low-cost pathway to gold production.
Read more: Brightstar Resources outlines low-cost pathway to gold production with robust scoping study
BTR is advancing its pre-feasibility study (PFS), focusing on the modernisation and enlargement of the Brightstar Plant.
The aim is to facilitate higher throughput and, consequently, escalate the annual production profile from its Laverton operations.
To complement these initiatives, Brightstar has procured an independent valuation of the mill and corresponding site infrastructure.
The objective of this assessment is to determine the adequate level of insurance coverage for these critical assets, as the company continues regional development and evaluates avenues for expediting production operations.
Significant advantage
“The Brightstar Processing Plant and related infrastructure represents a significant advantage from a time and cost perspective for Brightstar as we advance towards re-start of mining operations at the Menzies and Laverton Gold Projects,” Brightstar’s managing director Alex Rovira said.
“As outlined in the recently released scoping study, the ability to execute a low-cost refurbishment and expansion of the processing infrastructure is a key strategic advantage for the company that differentiates Brightstar from other aspiring WA gold explorers and developers.
"We are actively assessing opportunities to further increase the throughput of the mill to 1 million tonnes per annum to support an increased production profile at our Laverton Gold Project.
“The $60 million value on an ‘as new’ basis for the existing processing and associated infrastructure represents a significant cost that we do not have to incur to build our mining operations, which in the context of continued challenging debt and equity capital markets is an important asset for our business.
"Many of the components of the plant are brand new and have never operated since being installed, including the gravity circuit and 450kW ball mill.”
About Brightstar
In May 2023, Brightstar completed a merger with Kingwest Resources Ltd via a Scheme of Arrangement which saw the strategic consolidation of Brightstar’s Laverton Gold Project and Kingwest’s Menzies Gold Project.
Hosted in the prolific eastern goldfields of Western Australia and ideally located proximal to significant regional infrastructure, Brightstar has a significant JORC mineral resource of 21 million tonnes at 1.5 g/t for 1,016,000 ounces of gold.
Brightstar owns the Brightstar processing plant, a 60-man accommodation camp and non-processing infrastructure, 30 kilometres southeast of Laverton and within 60 kilometres of the company’s 511,000-ounce JORC resource within the Laverton Gold Project.
The Menzies Gold Project includes the high-grade gold field which has historically produced 787,200 ounces at 18.9 g/t from intermittent production between 1895 and 1995. In 2023, Brightstar commenced mining operations at the Menzies Gold project via a Profit Share Joint Venture with BML Ventures Pty Ltd.
Brightstar aims to grow its mineral resource inventory with the view to becoming a substantial future ASX gold developer and producer.