Westgold Resources will spend A$22 million upgrading its Cue processing hub in Western Australia, the company announced Wednesday, as growing underground ore supply pushes the plant toward its limits.

The upgrade, known as the Cue Expansion Plan, will lift the hub's annual processing capacity by 21% — from 1.4 million tonnes to 1.7 million tonnes. Westgold expects the extra capacity to add about 15,000 ounces of gold production per year once the work is finished in late FY27.

Rather than building new infrastructure, Westgold is upgrading what's already there. Workers will swap the mill's current 2.9 megawatt motor for a larger 4.2 megawatt liquid-cooled motor with a variable speed drive, alongside improvements to the plant's pumping systems.

The changes will push the milling circuit's throughput from 170 tonnes per hour to 200 tonnes per hour.

The expansion is a direct response to rising output from two of Westgold's underground mines near the town of Cue — Big Bell and Great Fingall — both located in the Murchison region of Western Australia. Ore may also come from the operating Fender underground mine, smaller open pits, third-party supply deals, and two exploration targets — Big Bell South and Cuddingwarra — both within 50 kilometers of the hub, pending successful drilling.

Westgold Managing Director and CEO Wayne Bramwell tied the investment to a broader strategy shift. "Bigger mines need bigger mills," Bramwell said. "Westgold's underground mine outputs are growing across all the Murchison operations and building ore stockpiles from FY27 onwards."

He added that the project reflects a calculated bet on efficiency over expansion for its own sake. "This simple upgrade and modest capital investment at the Cue hub reflects a deliberate shift towards processing hub optimisation and expansion, with lower operating costs and higher cashflow the objective," Bramwell said.

According to the company's scoping study, the Cue hub could produce between 1.1 million and 1.3 million ounces of gold over its remaining mine life, at an all-in sustaining cost of $2,916 to $3,564 per ounce. Westgold expects to recover its $22 million investment within 10 months.

The study also estimates the project will boost Cue's net present value by $400 million — though that figure is based on a long-term planning assumption of $5,500 per ounce gold, well above the roughly $2,600 per ounce Westgold cited in its own reporting as of late July 2026.

Open pit mining is already underway at both Cue and Meekatharra, and brownfield drilling continues near the mill in search of additional ore sources.

Westgold, listed on the ASX (WGX) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (WGX), is headquartered in Perth and produced 326,000 ounces of gold in FY25. The company is targeting more than 470,000 ounces annually by FY28 and reported $939 million in cash and liquid investments as of June 30, 2026.