Forrestania monster newsflow lands four WA gold project prefeasibility studies

In what can only be described as a red-letter day, Forrestania Resources has delivered a stunning raft of news to the market, including prefeasibility studies (PFS) for its Edna May, British Hill, Tycho and Johnson Range projects in Western Australia. Additionally, the company has unveiled maiden ore reserves for Edna May, Johnson Range and Tycho and reported a monster gold hit at its British Hill project.

If that’s not enough news, the company has also just been added to the VanEck Junior Gold Miners exchange traded fund (ETF), one of the most significant and widely-followed ETF’s for junior listed gold companies in the world.

Forrestania’s grand plan is to build a two-hub WA gold production business, using its 2.9Mtpa Edna May plant at Westonia and the refurbished 3.2Mtpa Lake Johnston facility as the processing engines for a growing stable of satellite deposits. The strategy is classic hub-and-spoke: consolidate gold resources across the region, bring the most economic deposits into production and funnel ore through existing processing infrastructure, sidestepping the cost and time of building a new mill for every mine.

Kicking off the headlines is the Edna May PFS. The study demonstrates a significant development opportunity underpinned by a maiden 12.6-million-tonne ore reserve for 402,800 ounces of gold grading 0.99 grams per tonne (g/t) that leverages the existing Edna May processing infrastructure. The fresh study estimates pre-tax undiscounted free cash flow of a whopping A$728.7 million at a gold price of A$5500 per ounce.

The operation is expected to include 10 years of mining and nine years of milling at an average all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of A$3293. Forrestania estimates the capital costs to bring the mine to life at roughly A$98M with impressive metallurgical recoveries of 93 per cent.

Edna May features a mineral resource estimate of 945,000 ounces of gold, with potential to extend the project if the resource can be further upgraded to reserve status. Impressively, using a gold price of A$6140 per ounce, close to the current spot price, estimated pre-tax undiscounted free cash flow slingshots to a stellar A$961M with an average AISC of A$3313 per ounce. The company expects Edna May to form a key piece of its Westonia hub strategy.

Next cab off the rank is British Hill, 75 kilometres south-east of Southern Cross in WA; the PFS tips $104.8 million in pre-tax free cash flow from the gold project. The numbers are underpinned by a maiden probable ore reserve of 1.563Mt grading 1.43g/t gold for 71,900 ounces. The two-year operation is expected to produce about 63,900 ounces of gold, with mining running for 23 months and processing across 11 months after ore is trucked 145 kilometres to Forrestania’s recently acquired 2.9Mt per annum Edna May plant.

The company has pencilled in a January 2027 start, with development capital estimated at a relatively modest A$16.1 million, average recoveries of 89 per cent and an all-in sustaining cost of A$3609 an ounce based on a A$5500 gold price. Notably, at a gold price of A$6140 an ounce, the numbers grow considerably, with pre-tax free cash flow swelling to A$144.4M.