Lion One Pours $4m

Lion One has reported its third ‘record production’ in the face of a down time.

The Tuvatu gold manufacturer produced 3639 ounces of gold for the three-month period ending September 30, even after it reported downtime in July.

“This marks three consecutive quarters of record production during the pilot plant phase of operations at Tuvatu,” chairman and chief executive officer, Walter Berukoff said.

Mill production during the quarter was impacted by a scheduled nine-day mill maintenance shutdown in July 2024, to carry out maintenance and upgrade at Tuvatu’s processing plant facilities.

“These upgrades will have a significant impact on processing efficiency and cost savings moving forward,” Mr Berukoff said.

Lion One has not based its current mine development plan on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability.

“As a result, there may be an increased uncertainty of achieving any particular level either of the recovery of minerals, or of the cost of such recovery, including increased risks associated with developing a commercially mineable deposit.”

Lion One has a total of five drills currently operating at Tuvatu, three of which are located underground for grade control and infill drilling.

The other two drills are located on the surface, engaged in near mine exploration, extension, and infill drilling.

“Mill production during the quarter was impacted by a scheduled nine-day mill maintenance shutdown in July 2024, which was conducted to maintain and upgrade the Tuvatu processing plant facilities,”Mr Berukoff said.

“These upgrades will have a significant impact on processing efficiency and cost savings moving forward.

SUBHEAD 

Last month, the new mine reported near-surface roscoelite-bearing high-grade gold zone at its Tuvatu project.

Roscoelite is a rare green to black vanadium bearing mica mineral, the presence of which is a defining characteristic of alkaline gold systems such as Tuvatu.

It is directly associated with higher-grade gold occurrences and is an important indicator mineral in these systems.

An initial bulk sample of the near-surface roscoelite zone at Tuvatu returned 11.6 grams per tonne gold from 861 tonnes of mineralised materials mined at full mining widths.

“Lion One is enhancing its mine plan with this gold-rich roscoelite material, which is already being processed through the pilot plant,” Mr Berukoff said.

Roscoelite veining is directly related to high-grade gold mineralization at the nearby Vatukoula gold mine where more than seven million ounces of gold were produced over the last 95 years.

Roscoelite is also observed in association with gold mineralisation at the Porgera gold mine in PNG, which has been a top ten ranked gold mine globally and which has produced over 25 million ounces of gold. Vatukoula and Porgera are both alkaline gold systems similar to Tuvatu.

At Porgera, the most economically significant veins are the Stage II quartz-roscoelite-pyrite veins with native gold, found in the Roamane fault zone. Similar Stage II quartz-roscoelite-pyrite veins are also observed in the new near-surface roscoelite zone at Tuvatu.

In another development, Lion One reported a draw down of $4 million for a mine enhancement plan designed to stabilise and increase current production and prepare the mine to support future expansion of the process plant.

Lion One has invested $300 million in Fiji for the past three years.

- Lion One