Orbminco’s three-pit plan moves Majestic North closer to production

Field work completed at Majestic North

Orbminco Limited (ASX:OB1) has finished the on-ground work needed to advance its 100%-owned Majestic North Gold Project in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, shifting the project’s main uncertainty from field data to commercial execution. The work included resource definition and sterilisation drilling, hydrogeological monitoring bores, and baseline flora, vegetation, fauna and surface water surveys.

“Hydrology studies”

The company says all assays from its 132-hole, 7,343-metre reverse circulation program have been received. Geotechnical studies, environmental surveys and infrastructure concepts are also complete, while an application to take up to 200,000 kilolitres of groundwater a year for mining remains under assessment.

Three-pit design aims to reduce peak funding

The most consequential change is the redesign of Stage 1. Instead of treating the initial development as one pit, Orbminco and Goldfields Technical Services have shaped it around three pits, named Pit 1A, Pit 1B and Pit 1C, within the shallow higher-grade part of Mining Lease M25/369.

“Isometric view of the Stage 1 conceptual pit design, Pit 1A, Pit 1B and Pit 1C, over the Mineral Resource block model and below the natural surface.”

“Mining studies and Mineral Resource estimates”

Caption and image © Orbminco Limited. From “Majestic North Gold Project Development Update”, 9 Nov 2026.

The conceptual sequence is designed to bring higher-grade material forward and reduce peak funding requirements while preserving the option to mine more of the broader resource later. The pits are planned to be mined from east to west under a contract mining arrangement, with material sold directly to an operating mill owner rather than processed through an Orbminco-owned plant. The plan remains subject to sale terms, funding, approvals and the Final Investment Decision.

“Metallurgical testwork (Complete)”

The development milestone builds on the completed Majestic North studies, which earlier coverage said had confirmed free-milling ore and a potential lower-capital route. Orbminco’s latest announcement adds that the metallurgical program found rapid leach kinetics, low levels of deleterious elements and gold recoverable through conventional gravity and cyanide leaching.

Ore sale terms now set the project’s next gate

Majestic North has a JORC Mineral Resource of 1.38 million tonnes at 1.14 grams per tonne gold for about 50,300 contained ounces. The higher-grade domain targeted by Stage 1 totals 249,000 tonnes at 2.42 grams per tonne for about 19,300 ounces, although that subset includes 78,000 tonnes classified as Inferred and is not additive to the overall resource.

Orbminco is now finalising discussions with operating mill owners. Those arrangements are expected to determine the processing pathway, the final Stage 1 mine plan and the financial model that will support the Board’s investment decision. The company has not disclosed sale prices, production estimates, capital requirements or a financing package.

Approvals and financing remain unresolved

“Majestic North development program summary, March 2026 to November 2026, showing the ten parallel workstreams and MDCP lodgement as at 2 November 2026.”

The remaining path runs through final desktop optimisation, project financing, the Final Investment Decision and lodgement of the Mining Development and Closure Proposal. Stakeholder consultation and heritage, land access and community work are continuing alongside preparation of the approvals documentation.

That leaves a sharper commercial test than the completed technical work alone might suggest. The project has a defined initial mining concept and encouraging processing characteristics, but its viability still turns on whether Orbminco can secure acceptable ore sale terms and funding without excessive dilution, then satisfy the regulatory and stakeholder requirements needed to build the mine.