Early figures herald ‘robust project’ for Transition

Transition Resources has revealed the numbers crunched for its plan to launch a pair of high-grade mines south-west of Cloncurry for quick cash while working on a larger, long-term resource. Order-of-magnitude studies by Transition indicate a pre-tax free cashflow of $190 million is possible from the first four years of mining, representing Phase 1 of its plan. “These early studies are incredibly detailed, so we are confident they will hold their value through independent confirmation to pre-feasibility level," Transition Resources founder and managing director David Wilson said. "They indicate a robust project is coming.” First cab off the rank for production would be the Duck Creek copper project, with a focus on sulphide copper ore which will be toll-treated at one of several local mills. It is expected to cost $3 million to bring online. Transition Resources managing director David Wilson. The second planned mine will focus on gold and critical metals at the Highway project. Transition plans to recover a pre-concentrate through a new, skid-mounted gravity plant, expected to cost less than $10 million to establish. In addition to gold, the pre-concentrate would potentially include payments for tungsten, magnet rare earths (NdPr and DyTb), and cobalt. "If all runs to plan, we anticipate first dig at the Duck Creek copper project from early 2026. The Highway gold project will then follow by about 12 months," Mr Wilson said. "All up, the two concurrent mining operations will include a four-year mine life, based on confirmed in-pit resources – but we anticipate this tonnage could yet double, which would support an increase in mining rates and a six-year Phase-1 mine-life, with similar grades, producing close to twice as much metal." Transition plans to continue to build a much larger resource base while these operations progress, to support its longer-term Phase 2 operations, accessing more ore but with lower average grades. The company says it can prioritise profitable resources over big resources in its development model because its new discoveries are high-grade and can be monetised quickly through open-pit mining methods, toll-treating at third-party mills, and minimal up-front capital expense. “It’s a different approach to what investors typically see in this space, especially for a small-cap private explorer," Mr Wilson said. "But everything about Transition is different; from its research programs and first greenfield discoveries in the Cloncurry district in decades, to its focus on future earnings per share - operational bookends rarely embraced by small explorers.” Transition has built a 1100sq km footprint in the Cloncurry region and plans to publish a research paper on its discoveries in late 2024. Transition has so far drilled 28 of the 207 priority prospects identified using new methodologies developed from its R&D programs. Significant zones of mineralisation were intersected at 22 of these, most of which are anticipated to increase in size with additional drilling. From these initial successes, Transition has been able to generate interim maiden resource estimates of 5.44 million tonnes at 1.45 per cent copper and 1.1 million tonnes at 3.1 g/t gold. “This is a spectacular result for our shareholders, and with so much upside yet to be tapped, it is also a spectacular opportunity for new investors coming on board at this early stage of the project," Mr Wilson said. "Drilling to date has focussed on shallow open-pit resources, but our few deep holes confirm high-grade mineralisation continues below 260m, so underground is an option for the future. "For now, most of the metal is contained within shallow, open pit mining shells, the largest of which is around 140m deep and finishes at 2.5 per cent copper in the pit floor.”

Early figures herald ‘robust project’ for Transition

Industry Queensland

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