Bellevue Gold starts making switch to thermal and renewable power supply as commercial production declared

Bellevue told the ASX on Tuesday it had also achieved commercial production, and was pushing to increase the nameplate capacity of its processing plant north of Leinster.

The company said it relied on its diesel power plant during the commissioning phase following first gold production in October, but the thermal LNG components of the power plant had been fully completed and commissioned, and were now providing base load power.

Bellevue said installation of the initial 20MW solar array had been completed, with the first 7MW now commissioned, and earthworks would begin this week on the 24MW wind power turbines, with completion and commissioning expected in the first quarter of next year.

The company said production totalled 37,338 ounces in the March quarter, putting it on track to achieve guidance of 75,000oz to 85,000oz for the six months to June 30.

Bellevue said studies were under way to expand the plant beyond its current nameplate operating rate of 1 million tonnes per annum.

The company said the plant was designed to enable throughput capacity to be increased to 1.2Mtpa with no material capital expenditure required.

It said to confirm this, the plant was operated at an annualised throughput rate of 1.2Mt for a week during February with no material issues arising, providing confidence this rate could be achieved on a consistent basis.

Bellevue said it had started a scoping level study on a plant expansion to 1.5Mtpa.

It said the study would investigate capital requirements for the expansion and include non-processing infrastructure, and was expected to be completed in the second half of this year.

Bellevue managing director Darren Stralow said the operation was hitting its straps, with the commissioning and production ramp-up proceeding well and free cashflow growing.

“In parallel with the ramp-up, we are accelerating the next leg of our organic growth strategy, which centres on increasing throughput by 50 per cent to 1.5Mtpa,” he said.

“As well as increasing production and cashflow, this would enable us to leverage existing infrastructure, drive further economies of scale and unlock greater value from our exceptional high-grade orebody.”