G Mining Ventures Corp (TSX-V:GMIN, OTCQX:GMINF) revealed a new acquisition and a new economic report on its Oko West project on Monday.
The company announced an agreement to acquire the CentroGold Project in Brazil’s Gurupi Gold Belt from BHP Group.
CentroGold, which currently contains 1.7 million ounces of indicated and 600,000 ounces of inferred JORC-compliant gold resources, is located in the state of Maranhão in northern Brazil.
The acquisition adds to GMIN’s project pipeline at no upfront cost, as the company will provide BHP with a 1% net smelter return (NSR) royalty on the first one million ounces of gold produced and a 1.5% NSR royalty on any further production.
G Mining Ventures CEO Louis-Pierre Gignac said the acquisition strengthens the company’s portfolio, which includes its Tocantinzinho Gold Mine and the Oko West Gold Project in Guyana.
“CentroGold boasts an attractive starting resource base on a large land package that covers around 1,900 square kilometres with significant exploration upside, located within a proven geological belt," Gignac said in a statement. “I believe this cash-flowing and high-growth portfolio offers our shareholders tremendous opportunity for value creation.”
CentroGold’s pre-feasibility study, released by Oz Minerals before its acquisition by BHP in 2023, projected an annual gold production of 100,000 to 120,000 ounces over a 10-year mine life.
Also on Monday, G Mining released a new preliminary economic assessment for its Oko project in Guyana.
The project is expected to generate strong returns with an after-tax net present value (NPV) of $1.4 billion at a 5% discount rate, an internal rate of return (IRR) of 21%, and a payback period of 3.8 years based on a base-case gold price of $1,950 per ounce.
At a spot gold price of $2,500 per ounce, the after-tax NPV rises to $2.5 billion, with an IRR of 31% and a payback period of just two years, G Mining noted.
The average annual production is projected at 353,000 ounces of gold over a 12.7-year mine life, with all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $986 per ounce.
The PEA estimates startup capital costs at $936 million, with sustaining capital of $537 million over the mine's life.
The company plans to submit its environmental and social impact assessment by the end of 2024, while progressing toward a feasibility study expected in the first quarter of 2025.
CEO Gignac expressed optimism about the project’s future. “I am excited that this exceptionally positive PEA only captures a snapshot of the potential value of Oko, as we continue to explore the prospective land package and evaluate value-enhancement opportunities for improved economics in a feasibility study planned for the first quarter of 2025."
The Oko West project is designed as a mix of open pit and underground mining, with the life of mine (LOM) for the open pit spanning 15 years, including two years of pre-stripping, and the underground LOM spanning 13 years. Processing will involve gravity concentration, cyanide leach, and carbon-in-leach (CIL) gold recovery circuits.
Measured and indicated mineral resources total 64.6 million tonnes at an average grade of 2.05 grams per tonne for 4.27 million ounces of contained gold. The PEA outlines total gold production of 4.5 million ounces over the mine's life, with a metallurgical recovery rate of 92.8%.
G Mining plans to leverage its experience from the successful development of the Tocantinzinho Gold Mine in Brazil, which reached commercial production in 2024, to deliver similar results at Oko West.
Shares of G Mining were up around 6.4% as of noon Monday in Toronto at $8.40.
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