15 Westgold Resources Limited Annual Report 2023 In FY23, the Bryah Operations produced 53,735oz of gold at an AISC of $2,103/oz (see Figure 10). The Fortnum operation is located in the Proterozoic age Bryah Basin stratigraphy approximately 150km northwest of Meekatharra and represents the northernmost group of Westgold assets. These assets encapsulate the historic mining centres of Labouchere, Fortnum, Horseshoe and Peak Hill which collectively have delivered approximately 2Moz of reported gold production. The processing hub incorporates the 0.8-0.9Mtpa Fortnum carbonin-leach (CIL) processing plant, a 200-person village, airstrip and associated mining infrastructure required to support a remote FIFO operation. Mining output is currently dominated by the Starlight underground mine with supplementary, free on surface lowgrade stocks providing a blended feedstock to the plant. Fortnum had a challenging year with weaker results delivered from the Starlight underground mine. This resulted in an operational restructure focused on optimising the mine plan, targeting key mining areas including the Moonlight, Twilight North, Galaxy and Trev’s lodes. The processing plant performed well, treating 802,753t of hard ore blend at a metallurgical recovery of 96%. A new pebble crusher will be installed in FY24 which will help manage the hard ores and incrementally increase throughput. A major extension drilling program was undertaken at Starlight during FY23. This program focused on testing the primary Starlight lodes over a multi-year window to provide increased levels of certainty for mine planning and infrastructure investment. Pleasingly these works have resulted in an expansion of the Mineral Resource base in the order of 70koz after mining depletion of 66koz. Drill testing of Starlight remains ongoing, targeting further Mineral Resource increases and translation of these to Ore Reserves as additional data density is achieved. Drill testing of the Nightfall system was also progressed in FY23. The Nightfall mineralisation sits adjacent to the Starlight lodes with many areas already having undergone capital development. This will allow for expedited production once the system is adequately defined. At the end of FY23 Westgold turned its attention to the evaluation of its Peak Hill suite of assets which are envisaged to provide a mediumterm source feed to the Fortnum Processing Plant. Significant progress has been made on locating and validating historic data, with initial geological modelling of Peak Hill mineralisation planned for early FY24. This modelling will form the basis for drill testing in the Peak Hill region over the course of FY24.
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