Sulphide smarts and borrowed plant give Medallion a shortcut to gold-copper cashflow in WA’s southern goldfields

In WA’s southern Goldfields, a smart, equipment-light approach is reshaping how smaller miners get into production without blowing the capex budget.

Medallion Metals is pushing ahead with a technically simple but smartly engineered sulphide development at its Ravensthorpe Gold Project. Instead of building everything from scratch, the company’s leveraging nearby infrastructure, targeting high-grade sulphide ore, and designing the mine around proven mining and processing methods.

At the heart of the plan is the Kundip Mining Centre—a shallow, copper-rich gold system that’s open in multiple directions. Medallion’s current focus is a 5.6Mt sulphide subset grading 4.3g/t gold and 0.6 percent copper, containing 770,000oz gold and 36,000t copper.

Rather than build a new plant, Medallion has inked an exclusivity agreement with IGO Ltd to access the Cosmic Boy plant at Forrestania—about 90km away. That plant already includes a flotation circuit, grid power, camp, airstrip, and TSF. By trucking sulphide ore to an existing facility, Medallion is bypassing major capital hurdles like tailings design, camp builds, and power install.

“This is a high-grade, compact, underground starter project,” said managing director Paul Bennett. “We’re reducing complexity, minimising disturbance, and fast-tracking first cashflow without sacrificing long-term upside.”

No frills, all function

The design is all about function over flash. The plan is for conventional underground mining (nothing fancy), with ore moved by truck to Forrestania. Metallurgical recovery is high—98 percent for gold, 80 percent for copper—and the process flow is industry standard: gravity, flotation, and CIL.

By sticking with what works and avoiding untested flowsheets, the team is limiting technical risk. AISC is expected to come in around A$1,845/oz (net of by-product credits), and the scoping study puts pre-production capital at just $73 million.

The plan generates 70,000oz of gold-equivalent annually over 5.5 years, with copper making up about 20 percent of early-stage revenue. It’s an attractive option for contractors and service providers—particularly those specialising in underground equipment, haulage logistics, flotation chemistry, and modular plant upgrades.

On the METS radar

While the project hasn’t entered construction yet, it’s already creating opportunities for:

• Underground development contractors

• RC and diamond drilling providers

• Mine ventilation and ground support suppliers

• Modular plant and process control vendors

• Ore haulage logistics companies

• Mobile fleet and maintenance service providers

• Environmental and permitting consultants

Bennett said the simplified scope reduces risk for all involved.

“We’re not building a plant. We’re trucking ore to a proven facility and processing with a flowsheet that’s been used successfully elsewhere in WA,” he said. “That changes the risk profile for suppliers and funding partners.”

Permitting position

The sulphide scenario has a small environmental footprint. There are no new waste dumps or tailings dams. The project has an existing WA Ministerial Statement in place (allowing up to 245ha clearing), and the EPBC approval is progressing under a low-risk pathway due to the reduced disturbance area.

Medallion expects to receive primary approvals within six to nine months and aims to reach a final investment decision by the end of 2025.

Future-proofing with optionality

Importantly, the company isn’t painting itself into a corner. The sulphide plan is just the start. The broader Kundip resource stands at 19.2Mt @ 2.1g/t Au and 0.3% Cu (1.3Moz gold and 56kt copper), and Medallion has only drilled to about 400m depth.

The current plan taps just 44 percent of the defined sulphide resource. Extensions at depth, along strike, and into the oxide and transitional zones remain in play.

The company is also about to drill four regional greenfield targets—all within trucking distance of the Cosmic Boy plant. Three of those have never seen a bedrock hole.

“We think this can evolve into a multi-deposit gold-copper camp, all tied to a central processing hub,” Bennett said. “That’s the long game.”

Medallion’s sulphide strategy shows what’s possible when mining companies think practically, partner strategically, and focus on doing more with less. For suppliers ready to support staged, infrastructure-light projects, this is one to watch.

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