The Black Swan Project is located approximately 50km northeast of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Previously a nickel operation, the project commenced operations in 1997 and operated continuously until 2008, producing 178.5kt of nickel in concentrate over this period. The project includes a 2.2Mtpa nickel sulphide concentrator and associated infrastructure.
A key strategy behind the merger of Horizon and Poseidon Nickel Limited was the proximity of the Black Swan plant and infrastructure to Horizon’s gold resources and the wider Kalgoorlie goldfields region. Following the merger, the merged company has commenced a feasibility studies to consider the conversion of the Black Swan plant to process gold ores.
Horizon holds a significant landholding across the Kalgoorlie goldfields region. With gold resources of 30.55Mt at a grade 1.84g/t Au for 1.8Moz gold the company will assess the amount of potential gold reserves to be processed at Black Swan as part of the feasibility studies. In addition, Horizon will continue to progress exploration activities across its numerous gold projects and assess additional opportunities to further consolidate its gold resources in this region for processing through the proposed converted Black Swan gold plant.
A Bankable Feasibility Study for the processing of nickel ores was completed for Black Swan in November 2022 and an internal scoping study on converting the nickel plant to gold production was completed in October 2017, both of which provide a basis for the currently progressing study.
Along with the processing plant, the Black Swan project infrastructure includes power connection to the grid, existing water sources and tailings storage facility to support any future gold operations. The existing infrastructure and utilities are expected to significantly reduce the timeframe for the development of the project.
Black Swan also presents an exciting gold exploration opportunity based on recent discoveries, with any gold resources being highly leveraged to the gold conversion project – see Greenfields Exploration