Merdeka Gold Resources (EMAS) Moves Closer to Gold Production at the Pani Gold Mine
Tue 27 Jan 2026, 05:39 AM
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PT Merdeka Gold Resources Tbk (EMAS) announced that the Pani Gold Mine has begun irrigation on its heap leach pad on Tuesday (Jan 27). This milestone is one of the final steps toward first gold production, which is targeted for the first quarter of 2026.
In the heap-leach process, crushed gold ore is stacked on a heap leach pad and irrigated with a chemical solution to dissolve the gold and silver contained in the ore. The metal-rich pregnant leach solution is then routed to the ADR (Adsorption, Desorption, and Recovery) plant for extraction and refining, producing gold and silver in the form of doré bullion.
The ADR facility at the Pani Gold Mine has completed commissioning and is ready to process the pregnant leach solution.
Boyke Poerbaya Abidin, President Director of Merdeka Gold Resources, stated that the start of heap-leach irrigation confirms that first gold production at the Pani Gold Mine can proceed as targeted in the first quarter of this year.
“This project is not only a long-term value driver for investors, but is also expected to deliver tangible contributions to regional development—particularly for the people of Pohuwato Regency—through increased locally generated revenue (PAD), job creation, and the growth of local MSMEs,” he said in a press release received by Kontan on Tuesday (Jan 27).
Alongside the initial development via heap leach, EMAS is also accelerating construction of a Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) processing facility with an installed capacity of up to 12 million tons of ore per year—moved up from 2027 to 2026. This facility will support increased gold production capacity at Pani over the medium to long term.
In terms of resources, the Pani Gold Mine has an Ore Reserve of approximately 4.8 million troy ounces derived from a Mineral Resource Estimate of more than 7 million ounces of gold.
With this scale, the Pani Gold Mine ranks among the largest primary gold deposits in Indonesia, further strengthening EMAS’s long-term growth fundamentals.
As heap-leach operations are optimized and the CIL facility is developed, the Pani Gold Mine has the potential to produce more than 500,000 troy ounces per year at peak output, making it one of the largest gold mines in Indonesia and the Asia-Pacific region.
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