Continuing inflationary pressures in West Australian mining have led Ramelius Resources to defer plans for a stage 3 openpit development at its Edna May gold project at Westonia, 315km E of Perth.
MD Mark Zeptner says cost increases have eroded the returns on the project to the point where they simply do not meet our internal hurdles.
Despite increasing its total mineral resource to 990,000oz (31Mt @ 1g/t), a PFS update lifts upfront capital cost forecasts to $A220M from $165M in its Jan 2021 scoping study and AISC to $A1,977/oz from $1,540/oz. They outweigh base gold price forecasts rising to $2,600/oz from $2,300/oz.
Zeptner says Ramelius will continue permitting for Stage 3 to allow for a quick re-start in future.