GOLD STUDY: Pit and underground planned at Maverick

MANITOBA – Auriga Gold Corp. of Toronto is planning both open pit and underground mining at its Maverick gold project near Flin Flon. This is the recommendation of the recent preliminary economic assessment of the project.

Five open pits and the underground mine would produce roughly 2.0 million tonnes of ore that will be processed in the refurbished Puffy Lake mill at a rate of 750 t/d. Over a 7.5-year project life, 348,000 oz of gold would be produced. The projected average production cash cost is C$950/oz. Capital costs are pegged at C$18.1 million, including a 20% contingency.

The Maverick base case is built around a gold price of US$1,400/oz, and the projected pre-tax net present value (8%) is C$79.9 million. That makes the pre-tax internal rate of return 84% with payback reached in only 20 months.

Auriga is also drilling at its Nokomis deposit located 8 km northeast of the Puffy Lake mill with the intention to increase resources. Current open pit and underground indicated resources stand at 944,000 tonnes grading 5.73 g/t Au, plus an inferred resource of 3.1 million tonnes grading 5.61 g/t Au.

See also AurigaGold.ca.