Hello, I'm Ngaire McDiarmid for MiningNews.net. It's a great day to be speaking with Phil Wilding, Managing Director and Chief Executive at Rox Resources. Phil, you've just wrapped up a well-supported AUD 40 million placement. That puts Rox in a good position, what's the key message you'd like people coming to MiningNews Select Australia to understand about Rox?
I guess the biggest one of Rox is Rox has now transitioned from that explorer potential developer is we are now being a better developer. We have about AUD 57 million in the bank. We have a plan which has been communicated to market to get ourselves into production. This really sets us up de-risking where we want to go. We will deliver, we will become a producer in the not-too-distant future.
Well, can you talk us through some of the highlights of your key project, the Youanmi Gold project, that's going to deliver this?
Definitely. Youanmi Gold project, it is a historical mining site. It's mined over 670,000 ounces of gold at about 5.4 grams between the 1930s, 1950s, and then again the 1980s and 1990s. Since then, it's really sat dormant. Been through a few sets of ownership before Rox Resources took up an option ownership a few years ago. Since then it's all been about drilling it out, understanding what's there, and growing the resource base. There was a PFS released in July last year, which is fantastic metrics, circa eight-year mine life, a bit over 100,000 ounces per annum, and at today's gold prices it's well north of AUD 2 billion in cash flow. Operationally, fantastic. Bit under AUD 1,700 ounce All-in Sustaining Costs as well, which is certainly in the lower quartile in the industry.
Resource base 2.3 million ounces at 4.4 grams a ton. That came out in January 2023. Since then, we've actually put in about 47,000 drill meters into the ground, and that'll have an MRE update coming out in July 2024, which we reckon is going to be pretty exciting for the business.
Well, Phil, you've mentioned the upcoming resource update. What's some other news that investors should keep an eye out for in the coming months?
It's a really good one. There's a lot of news flow coming. Our indicative pathway to production really outlines the plan for the business this year, but it's also there just to give everyone an idea of what to expect. By end of June 2024, we should have dewatering updates out. We've got some met work which is due at the moment as well. Comminution flotation has been completed. Now got the oven process underway, so we're going to get a bit of comms out on that. Going into July 2024, we'll have the MRE, as mentioned before, coming out mid-month. At the end of July 2024, we're expecting to see the met results and that's going to be a real big one for the business too. As all that's ongoing, dewatering updates keep coming. We've still got the results outstanding.
I still have two diamond rigs on site now, so there'll be some consistent news flow on that. Ultimately that culminates to the DFS, which is due out in November 2024 into a pretty quick FID. Between now and the end of the year, there's a lot happening at Rox. All going well, we'll be mining as well in the late last quarter of 2024. Part of the funding we just completed, so it's pretty exciting times.
Phil, you bring some gold mining experience obviously, having worked with WA producer Westgold Resources previously, one of your roles in the industry so far. For you, what does success look like for Rox Resources?
It's a real one. Big one for me, I want to go and be the leader of a company building a project. My whole background has been building and restructuring assets, refurbishing mills and the like, and generating a lot of, I guess, profits for other people. Now I've got the opportunity to come in here at Rox where I can build a team, which we've done a really good job with so far. I've built a team of mine developers. We have all key backgrounds covered to be able to build an asset. What do we think good looks like? It's a company where people want to work for us. It's a company that does what we say it's going to do, and at the end of the day, deliver value for the shareholders of the company and the communities that we work in.
Well, Phil, all the best, I look forward to catching up with you at MiningNews Select.
Thank you very much.