BRITISH COLUMBIA – Toronto’s
AuRico Metals has updated the Kemess underground feasibility study outlining annual production of 238,000 oz of gold equivalent over the first five years of operation at an all-in sustaining cost of US$682/oz. The mine is located 430 km northwest of Prince George in the Toodoggone River area.
AuRico says that pre-production capital costs will be C$450 million including contingency plus another C$153 million in capitalized operating costs (net of revenue). The Kemess underground project has a pre-tax net cash flow of C$1.1 billion and an after tax cash flow of C$746 million. The after tax net present value is C$289 million with an internal rate of return of 12.6%. Total life of mine production will be 1.4 million oz of gold, 573 million lb of copper and 4.5 million oz of silver.
The project is underpinned by a measured and indicated resource of 246.4 million tonnes averaging 0.22% Cu, 0.42 g/t Au and 1.75 g/t Ag. The inferred resource is 21.6 million tonnes at 0.22% Cu, 0.40 g/t Au and 1.70 g/t Ag.
Additional exploration potential lies about 1 km east of the underground project at the Kemess East deposit. AuRico recently identified a high grade core there. The core contains an estimated indicated resource of 19.2 million tonnes grading 0.47% Cu and 0.72 g/t Au as well as an inferred resource of 31.7 million tonnes averaging 0.45% Cu and 0.63 g/t Au. This high grade zone is associated with a strong potassic alteration zone and is open to the west, north and south.
The Kemess property includes the former Kemess South open pit mine and mill, valued at about C$1 billion if it were to be replaced today.
Please see the news release of March 23, 2016, posted at
www.AuRicoMetals.ca for additional details of the Kemess underground project.
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