Pacgold has initiated heap leach gold production at the newly acquired White Dam project in South Australia (SA).
Cyanide irrigation is currently in progress along the western side of the leach pad at the project, which is located around 80km west of Broken Hill.
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Roughly 250,000 tonnes (t) of original run-of-mine (ROM) ore from the first lift of the existing heap leach dump has been rehandled and is expected to be under irrigation by mid-January 2026.
Irrigation will continue using the recently relined and approved pregnant leach solution (PLS) pond, together with the site’s existing, fully operational processing infrastructure.
Pacgold will retain the excavator on site over the next few months to concentrate on aerating sections of the heap leach pad that previously received lower levels of irrigation.
The first leaching campaign is expected to run for five to six weeks, with ore processing and sales forecast to deliver the operation’s initial cash flow.
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By GlobalDataPacgold also anticipates that outcomes from this initial leaching stage will provide guidance on expected gold recovery rates from the remaining pad material.
Pacgold managing director Matthew Boyes said: “Commencing heap leach irrigation at White Dam is a major milestone for the company and marks the transition from project acquisition to gold production. We are all very keen to see how this first batch of material reacts to aeration and being turned over.
“This exercise should be viewed as a large-scale metallurgical test work programme, results of which we anticipate will demonstrate the potential to extract significant value from the 7.5 million tonnes [mt] of existing ROM [run of mine] ore on the leach pad over the coming months.”
Pacgold plans to commence a complete re-crush programme for the final lift of the heap leach pad, with equipment mobilisation expected in the first quarter of 2026.
Drilling activities on existing resources and adjacent targets are also resuming and are expected to continue from May–June 2026.
Updated resource estimates and mining studies are due to be finalised ahead of the intended restart of full-scale mining.
In addition, an engineering study will begin shortly to assess expanding the pad base and adding around 4mt of additional leach capacity to support the mine restart and ramp-up to full production.
In November 2025, Pacgold begun the maiden drilling programme at the St George gold-antimony project in north-east Queensland, Australia, aiming to test the depth extent of high-grade gold and antimony-bearing veins.
