St Barbara redesign at Fifteen Mile Stream to cut costs, boost efficiencies

The Australian gold mining company St Barbara (ASX: SBM) has updated it Fifteen Mile Stream project in Nova Scotia. The project redesign now includes a standalone 1.7 million to 1.8 million t/y processing facility, with the Touquoy processing plant being relocated to Fifteen Mile Stream. An update of the project design, capital and operating cost estimates to prefeasibility study level is due in November 2023.

The project targets a 10-year mine life and an average gold production of 60,000 oz. per year. The company now says the relocation of the bulk of the Touquoy processing plant to Fifteen Mile Stream is the preferred development pathway for the next phase of its Atlantic operations.

St Barbara managing director and CEO Andrew Strelein said, “This new design for Fifteen Mile Stream is an excellent alternative pathway to development with improved recoveries and with lower overall capital cost and execution risk. It is time to move on from the earlier design with integration with Touquoy given the delays in approvals to our in-pit tailings proposal.”

Stelein added that the project redesign represents a simple solution for bringing Fifteen Mile Stream into production.

The Touquoy processing plant, finished in 2017, has a throughput rate of 2.0 million tonnes per year. Although Fifteen Mile Stream ores are expected to be harder and require finer product size compared to the ore from Touquoy mine, the company says the processing plant can handle it. Reusing Touquay plant equipment will make the project less expensive. 

The Fifteen Mile Stream project is located approximately 40 km east-northeast of the Touquoy mine, while the company’s Beaver Dam project is mid-way between the Fifteen Mile Stream project and the Touquoy mine.

Considering the project redesign, St Barbara has withdrawn the existing application from the co-operative federal-provincial environmental assessment process. The company will submit new environmental assessment material in due course.

For more information, visit www.StBarbara.com.au.