HORSESHOE LIGHTS STOCKPILE RESOURCES
Overview
The area surrounding the historic Horseshoe Lights mine site hosts various surface stockpiles that remain from historic gold and copper mining activities. Areas identified and assessed as having strong Direct Shipping Ore (‘DSO’) copper potential include M15, Subgrade and C20 stockpiles along with rehandle and surface pimple dumps located on the North Waste dump, Gold tailings and Southern low-grade stockpile.
DSO Mining Approval from the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety (DEMIRS) was granted in July 2025 (link to release).
Activities and planning is focussed on:
- Copper concentrate offtake discussions including potential for offtake funding
- Scavenging of remnant coarse DSO material, bagging and transport
- Heavy Media Separation of fine DSO material from select stockpiles
- Small Scale Heap/Vat Leach of oxide material followed by cementation
- 5. Large Scale Heap/Vat leach of surface oxide material followed by cementation
Gold rehandle and Vat Leach areas
Targets tested by augering included gold-bearing vat leach material, vat walls, gold tailings and copper flotation tailings (click for full details). 255 holes totalling 1204.8 m were completed in Phase 1 activities during July and August 2021.
Best results include:
- 4 m @ 5.34 g/t Au from surface (MVAG008- Gold rehandle area)
- 4 m @ 2.40 g/t Au from surface (MVAG023- Gold rehandle area)
- 4 m @ 2.19 g/t Au from surface (MVAG025- Gold rehandle area)
c20 Stockpile
Shallow Reverse Circulation (RC) drilling of the C20 stockpile was completed in late August on lines 20 m apart with 10 m spaced holes, part of a proposed 10 m x 10 m spaced drill hole pattern designed to confirm the grade and distribution of mineralisation. Results confirmed significant gold and copper material within the stockpile in coherent minable volumes (click for full details). Phase 2 activities at Horseshoe Lights will include completion of the 10 m x 10 m drill pattern in the C20 stockpile.
Best results include:
- 9 m @ 1.69 g/t Au and 0.4 % Cu from 1m in hole C20_RC8
- 6 m @ 1.20 g/t Au from surface in hole C20_RC21
- 3 m @ 2.54 g/t Au and 0.73 % Cu from surface in hole C20_RC46
Resource Table
The mineral resource estimation for low-grade copper-bearing material remaining on surface at Horseshoe Lights in stockpiles and tailings is given below:
| Type | Category | Tonnage (t) | Cu (%) | Cu metal (tonnes) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flotation Tailings | Inferred | 1,420,000 | 0.48 | 6,800 |
| M15 Stockpile | Inferred | 243,000 | 1.10 | 2,650 |
| Total | 1,663,000 | 0.81 | 9,450 |