The debut mining campaign is shaping up as a genuine money-spinner for Auric, with about 6100 ounces of gold expected to roll out of the Munda starter pit by February next year. Even more impressive, all-in sustaining costs are pegged at just A$2635 per ounce, leaving Auric sitting on a handsome margin in today’s turbocharged gold market.
Initial financial modelling had assumed a modest A$3500 gold price – a figure that now looks wildly outdated. Back then, the studies pointed to about $5.3 million in free cashflow.
However, with the precious metal now blazing past A$6000 an ounce – nearly double the original assumption – Auric’s first 1790-ounce pour has already smashed those early estimates. With another 4391 ounces still in the queue, the cash registers look set to keep ringing.
Auric Mining managing director Mark English said: “We are ahead of schedule and thrilled to be delivering our first cash from Munda this week – a great close to the year for Auric. It’s another big step for the Company, as well as a pivotal milestone in the overall development of our Munda Gold Mine.”
Planning and scoping work for the Munda main pit is set to kick off in the first quarter of 2026. The company sees the main pit as a key stepping-stone to establishing Auric as an integrated, sustainable, mid-tier gold producer.
At 3.65 million tonnes grading 1.23 grams per tonne (g/t) for 145,000 ounces of contained gold at a 0.5g/t cut-off, its main pit already shapes up as a tidy earner. By easing that cut-off down to 0.2g/t, the resource balloons to 189,000 ounces across the indicated and inferred categories, hinting there’s still plenty of gold juice left to squeeze from the system.
When Kalgoorlie-based Minecomp crunched the numbers back in 2023, the consultants liked what they saw. Working off what now looks like a bargain-basement gold price of just A$2600 an ounce, their scoping study modelled 1.716 million tonnes at a healthy 2.2g/t – enough to pump out a chunky A$76.9 million in undiscounted surplus cashflows.
Even on those assumptions that would be a more-than-healthy result for the $50m market cap company.
But in today’s record-breaking gold market, those figures suddenly look positively explosive. What once appeared a small-scale pit is rapidly shaping into a genuine cash machine and a project where every ounce lifted from the ground could add serious sparkle to Auric’s bottom line.
With the first gold already sold, cash in hand, and a buoyant market tailwind, Auric’s early run from Munda has not just delivered gleaming doré bars but also a solid foundation for growth.
For a company that listed only five years ago, the first pour from Munda could mark the start of a new golden chapter in its story.
Is your ASX-listed company doing something interesting? Contact: mattbirney@bullsnbears.com.au
