Welcome to A1 Minerals

A1 Minerals Limited (ASX: AAM) was listed in December 2003 on the basis of its prime exploration targets in the historic gold mining region of Laverton in Western Australia’s north eastern goldfields.

Mining began on a trial basis late in 2009, focused on the Beta pit and when the company’s 300,000 tonnes per annum mill was completed, the operation moved into full production in the second half of 2010 and by October was achieving production above the nameplate production capacity.

A1 Minerals will be looking to build up to full target production in calendar 2011 of 30,000 ounces of gold plus a significant amount of silver.

The focus has been on getting into production, initially with the support of CPC Engineering which built the mill and then with mining contractor Watpac that used the Brightstar project as its beachhead to move into the bustling Western Australian gold mining scene.

A1 Minerals now has an established mining camp at Brightstar to accommodate its workforce and contractors, most of whom operate on a fly-in, fly-out schedule. Facilities there include modern communications, a laboratory and, by early 2011, a gold room should be completed.

In November 2010 the company in consultation with Watpac had advanced approvals and planning to open up the Alpha pit several kilometers north of the Beta pit that should provide a strong supply of high grade open cut ore in 2011, and at the same time open pit mining at Beta may be expanded.

With mining and milling operations becoming firmly established the company in 2011 will undertake more aggressive exploration to convert some of the large known resources into mineable reserves.

BrightStar is a large project with deposits running on a strike length of more than 110 kilometres north and east of Laverton – one of Western Australia’s best endowed mining districts in terms of historic and modern production.

The known gold endowment of the Laverton region is now more than 20 M oz of gold and recent and current world class ore bodies include Granny Smith, Wallaby and Sunrise Dam.

Significant discoveries and ore reserve expansion by other companies in the Laverton region reflect the potential for new discoveries.

In mid 2010 the company sold some of its Narnoo uranium-base metals prospects to the south of the Brightstar leases to St George Mining Ltd, which listed late that year. A1 Minerals retains a royalty on those prospects.

The company also sold its far northern gold prospect to Regis Mining, which has a mining project in that area.

 
Preparation for gold pour.