DESIGNATED NEWS RELEASE
All currency amounts herein are in US dollars unless otherwise indicated.
- Total projected life of mine ("LOM") production of approximately 1.74 million gold equivalent ounces averaging 143,100 ounces over the estimated 12-year life.
- Projected LOM production of 1.29 million ounces of gold, 203.9 million pounds of copper and 2.98 million ounces of silver at recoveries of 91%, 80% and 64%, respectively.
- After-tax Net Present Value ("NPV (5%)") of approximately
$274 million at base case commodity prices of$1,750 per ounce of gold,$21 per ounce of silver, and$3.50 per pound of copper; and approximately$434 million at spot commodity prices1. - Total cash cost of
$786 per ounce of gold and All-In Sustaining Cost ("AISC") of$1,142 per ounce of gold (net of by-product credits). - Initial capital expenditures of approximately
$425 million for a 15,000 tonne per day processing facility fed by a conventional truck and loader open pit mining operation with sustaining capital and mine closure expenditures of approximately$193 million .
Alastair Still, CEO of GoldMining commented, "We are pleased to update our PEA on La Mina, demonstrating the value we have created through the exploration discovery made at La Garrucha, such that the combined project represents a significant deposit of gold and copper with an attractive head grade above 1.0 g/t gold equivalent. Deposits of this scale with exploration upside and robust economics are becoming increasingly scarce, and La Mina exemplifies our efforts to advance our portfolio of projects in the
1Recent commodity spot prices of |
TABLE 1: PEA Summary of Key Metrics.
Parameter | Units | Base Case | Spot Price |
Metal Prices | |||
Gold | $oz | 1,750 | 1,975 |
Copper | $/lb | 3.50 | 3.75 |
Silver | $/oz | 21.00 | 25.00 |
Production Data | |||
years | 12.2 | ||
Mined Mineralized Material | million tonnes | 61.3 | |
Process Plant Production Rate | tpd | 15,000 | |
Process | Au g/t | 0.72 | |
Ag g/t | 2.36 | ||
Cu % | 0.19 | ||
AuEq g/t | 1.01 | ||
Strip Ratio | ratio | 5.81 | |
Average Annual Production | oz AuEq | 143,100 | |
Total LOM Payable Production | million oz AuEq | 1.69 | |
Operating Costs | |||
LOM Cash Unit Cost | $/t processed | 21.01 | |
LOM Total Cash Cost | $/oz | 786 | |
LOM All-In Sustaining Unit Cost | $/oz | 1,142 | |
Capital Costs | |||
$ million | 424.8 | ||
Sustaining Capital | $ million | 155.4 | |
Closure | $ million | 37.9 | |
Total Capital | $ million | 618.0 | |
Financial Analysis | |||
Pre-Tax NPV (5%) | $ million | 443.3 | 669.8 |
After-Tax NPV (5%) | $ million | 274.5 | 433.6 |
Pre-Tax IRR | % | 19.0 | 25.0 |
After-Tax IRR | % | 14.2 | 18.8 |
After-Tax Payback | years | 6.2 | 5.3 |
The PEA is preliminary in nature, and there is no certainty that the reported results will be realized. Mineral Resources used for the PEA include Inferred Mineral Resources which are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the projected economic performance will be realized. The purpose of the PEA is to demonstrate the economic viability of the
The PEA examined several mining scenarios with varying rates of production and cut-off grades and determined that a 12.2-year LOM and 61.3 million mineralized tonnes demonstrate robust financial returns using consensus metal prices. Refer to Figure 1 for the metal production profile.
Construction of the Project is expected to take approximately two years to complete and includes an assumed 15,000 tonne-per-day process plant. The operation is envisioned to produce both a copper concentrate with precious metal credits and doré. Capital and operating costs are estimated as of 2023 benchmarks and leverages on the Project's proximity to established infrastructure including roads, power and an available workforce.
To prepare the PEA, the Company engaged
The Company will continue to assess potential opportunities to further optimize the La Mina gold-copper porphyry open pit mine, with a view to advancing optimization work and additional studies in the coming years. A summary of potential future opportunities is presented in Table 2.
TABLE 2: Potential Future Opportunities
Opportunity | Potential Benefits |
Infill Drilling | Increase confidence in the geological models and controls on and
|
Exploration Drilling
Exploration drilling outside of the current resources
| Expansion opportunities at the existing deposits to delineate additional resources.
Porphyry cluster model predicts potential for new porphyry discoveries |
Metallurgical test work &
| Variability test work to optimize process flowsheet and improve gold, |
Geotechnical test work | Optimize pit wall slopes and potentially reduce strip ratio and to assess |
Infrastructure design &
| Optimize site layout, material handling and pit backfill to reduce LOM |
Environmental &
Metal Prices | Environmental baseline & heritage studies, and community stakeholder
Base case metal price assumptions in PEA are considerably below current spot prices for gold, copper and silver. |
The Project is well positioned to potentially further enhance economics by utilizing metals prices which are currently higher than the base case metal prices used in the PEA. Sensitivity to metal pricing is illustrated in Table 3.
TABLE 3: Economic Metrics Sensitivity Table.
Units | Gold Price (US$/oz) | |||||||
1,650 | 1,700 | 1,750 | 1,800 | 1,850 | 1,900 | 1,950 | ||
Pre-Tax NPV (5%) | $ million | 360.5 | 401.9 | 443.3 | 484.8 | 526.2 | 567.7 | 609.1 |
After-Tax NPV (5%) | $ million | 216.2 | 245.4 | 274.5 | 303.6 | 332.7 | 361.9 | 391.0 |
IRR (After-Tax) | % | 12.5 % | 13.4 % | 14.2 % | 15.1 % | 15.9 % | 16.8 % | 17.6 % |
Payback | years | 6.5 | 6.4 | 6.2 | 6.0 | 5.9 | 5.7 | 5.6 |
The mining plan utilized in the PEA uses conventional truck/loader open pit methods employing a fleet of trucks with haulage capacity of 139 tonnes and front-end loaders equipped with 19 cubic metre buckets. Three pit areas will be mined over a period of 12.2 production years. One pre-production year of stripping will be required followed by two years of stripping concurrent with production. Refer to Table 4 for the production and payable metal summary and to Figure 2 for the mined schedule. Mineralized material will be transported by haulage trucks to a nearby process plant and waste rock will either be stored as backfill or in proximity to the open pits. Mining will be conducted at an initial rate of 33 million total tonnes per annum (Mtpa) or 91 kilo tonnes per day (ktpd) to a peak rate of 52 Mtpa (142 ktpd) for total movement that will sustain the process plant.
The process plant feed is contained within an optimized subset of the Mineral Resource set out in the Pit Constrained Mineral Resource Estimate illustrated in Table 6. Collectively, the three pits contain 61.3 Mt of process plant feed (inclusive of mining dilution and loss factors) averaging 0.19% Cu, 0.72 g/t Au and 2.36 g/t Ag. Over LOM,
Existing royalties have been included in the economic analysis and are comprised of a 2.0% net smelter return (NSR) royalty held by Gold Royalty Corp., and a gross revenue royalty of 4.0% on precious metals and 5.0% on base metals imposed by the
TABLE 4: Production and Payable Metal Summary
Copper | Gold | Silver | Gold Equivalent | |
Contained | 254.82 Mlbs | 1,420 koz | 4,660 koz | 1,986 koz |
Metallurgical Recovery | 80 % | 91 % | 64 % | |
Production | 203.86 Mlbs | 1,293 koz | 2,983 koz | 1,736 koz |
Payable | 195.71 Mlbs | 1 ,262 koz | 2,828 koz | 1,687 koz |
A recent metallurgical testing program was completed by ALS Global, based in
- Primary crushing and grinding in a SAG/ball mill circuit to a nominal 250-100 µm grind size;
- Froth flotation to generate a copper rougher concentrate which is reground and subjected to two stages of cleaner flotation for copper grade improvement; copper concentrate is thickened, filtered and prepared for shipment to a smelter;
- Cyanidation leach, carbon adsorption, carbon stripping and thermal regeneration, electrowinning and smelting to produce doré; and
- Cyanide destruction of the final tailings.
Capital costs for the Project have been estimated by initial and sustaining capital categories. Mine closure has been accounted for and is expected to reclaim tailings and waste rock storage facilities (see Table 5).
TABLE 5: Capital Costs ($ Millions)
Initial | Sustaining | Total | |
Contractor Pre-Stripping | 10.0 | 32.5 | 42.5 |
Mining + Maintenance | -- | 97.7 | 97.7 |
Process Plant + Maintenance | 274.7 | 6.0 | 280.7 |
Tailings Management Facility | 6.0 | 5.6 | 11.6 |
Site Infrastructure | 65.0 | -- | 65.0 |
Owner's Cost + Contingency | 69.1 | 13.6 | 82.7 |
424.8 | 155.4 | 580.1 | |
Mine Closure | -- | 37.9 | 37.9 |
Total Capital | 424.8 | 193.3 | 618.0 |
TABLE 6: Pit Constrained Mineral Resource Estimate (Effective Date:
Grades | Contained Metal | ||||||||
Deposit | Tonnes | Au | Ag | Cu | AuEq | Au | Ag | Cu | AuEq |
(kt) | (g/t) | (g/t) | ( %) | (g/t) | (koz) | (koz) | (Mlbs) | (koz) | |
Indicated Mineral Resource | |||||||||
La Cantera | 17,614 | 0.86 | 2.03 | 0.31 | 1.32 | 487.0 | 1,149.6 | 120.5 | 749.2 |
La Garrucha | 7,358 | 0.65 | 3.14 | 0.11 | 0.84 | 153.8 | 742.8 | 17.8 | 199.5 |
8,800 | 0.54 | 1.28 | 0.11 | 0.71 | 152.8 | 362.1 | 21.2 | 200.9 | |
Total Indicated | 33,772 | 0.73 | 2.08 | 0.21 | 1.06 | 793.6 | 2,254.5 | 159.4 | 1,149.6 |
Inferred Mineral Resource | |||||||||
La Cantera | 11,175 | 0.71 | 1.85 | 0.3 | 1.15 | 255.1 | 664.7 | 727.1 | 413.0 |
La Garrucha | 44,107 | 0.55 | 2.46 | 0.1 | 0.72 | 779.9 | 3,488.4 | 96.8 | 1,022.4 |
949 | 0.47 | 1.15 | 0.09 | 0.61 | 14.3 | 35.1 | 1.9 | 18.6 | |
Total Inferred | 56,231 | 0.58 | 2.32 | 0.14 | 0.80 | 1,049.3 | 4,188.1 | 171.4 | 1,454.0 |
Notes: | |
1. | The qualified person for the above estimate is |
2. | Mineral Resources are classified as Indicated Resources and Inferred Resources and are based on the 2014 CIM Definition Standards. The estimation of Indicated Mineral Resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic feasibility than the estimation of Mineral Reserves, and therefore investors are cautioned not to assume that all or any part of Indicated Mineral Resources will ever be converted into Mineral Reserves. The estimation of Inferred Mineral Resources involves greater uncertainty as to their existence and economic viability than the estimation of other categories of Mineral Resources. |
3. | Numbers may not add up due to rounding. |
4. | Cut-Off Grade: 0.30 g/t Au. |
5. | The Mineral Resource Estimate was based on US$ metal prices of |
6. | Gold-equivalent grades were calculated using the following formula: AuEq = Au (g/t) + [Cu(%) x {Cu Price/Au Price} x 22.0462 x 31.1035] + [Ag (g/t) x {Ag Price/Au Price}]. |
7. | The quantity and grade of reported Inferred Mineral Resources in this estimation are uncertain in nature and there has been insufficient exploration to define these Inferred Mineral Resources as Indicated or Measured Mineral Resources. |
8. | The author knows of no environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing, political or other relevant factors that may materially affect the Mineral Resource Estimate. |
GoldMining will file an updated technical report for the La Mina PEA within 45 days of the date hereof.
The Company is a public mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of gold assets in the
Disclosure regarding the Project, including the PEA and Mineral Resource estimates included herein, has been prepared by the Company in accordance with NI 43-101. NI 43-101 is a rule developed by the Canadian Securities Administrators that establishes standards for public disclosure by issuer of scientific and technical information concerning mineral projects. NI 43-101 differs significantly from the disclosure requirements of the
This news release contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of GoldMining with respect to its expectations and ongoing and proposed work at the
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