Fortitude Gold (OTCQB:FTCO) Corp announced that it has filed a plan of operation with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for the Golden Mile project located in Mineral County, Nevada.
The Colorado Springs, Colorado-based company said that the proposed operations at Golden Mile include an open-pit mine and heap leach process taking gold to the carbon phase, after which processing the loaded carbon into gold doré utilizing the nearby Isabella Pearl ADR plant.
Fortitude Gold (OTCQB:FTCO) released an initial resource for its Golden Mile property in November 2021, which included a mineral resource of 78,500 gold ounces at a grade of 1.13 grams per tonne (g/t) in the indicated category, and 84,500 gold ounces at 1.10 g/t in the inferred category.
READ: Fortitude Gold releases new mineral resource estimate for Golden Mile outlining strong growth potential
The current Golden Mile mineral resource is located on patented claims, according to Fortitude.
"As we finalize estimates on project capital expenditures and economics, this recent filing of the plan of operations with the BLM continues to advance the project full steam towards a production decision,” said Jason Reid, Fortitude Gold's CEO in a release.
He added: “Filing the plan of pperations keeps us on track for the potential building of this mine on an expedited basis assuming that our production decision is positive. The plan of operations is an important submittal which initiates the first part of a larger permitting process involving additional agencies.”
The company said that its management is moving towards a production decision based on this initial project resource and is currently finalizing estimates for project capital expenditures, sustaining project capital, as well as overall project economics.
Though the mineralization remains open along both strike and depth for potential expansion with infill and step-out exploration drilling, Fortitude said it is evaluating a production decision independent of the mineral expansion potential. The company is targeting a production decision for Golden Mile in the first half of 2022 based on the project's initial resources.
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