Anacortes Mining Corp shared the positive results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on its Tres Cruces gold oxide project in northern Peru, in the heart of the South American country’s premier gold mining district.
The Vancouver, British Columbia-based gold company said the Tres Cruces PEA estimates a pre-tax net present value (NPV) at a 5% discount rate of US$294.3 million. Subsequently, the company said the PEA assessment estimates after-tax net present value (5%) of $165.9 million at $1,700 gold.
In a statement, Anacortes Mining CEO Jim Currie said: "The Tres Cruces Oxide project PEA shows excellent economics for the proposed heap leach operation, located in one of the world's most prolific gold mining belts. We intend to aggressively advance the development of the oxide resource to deliver shareholder value in a timely and environmentally and socially responsible manner, and we continue to emphasize that Tres Cruces has exceptional exploration potential at depth.”
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He added: “The existing 1.8-million-ounce sulphide gold resource below the oxide cap will be further evaluated with our upcoming drill program. This program will deepen holes that ended in wide zones of higher-grade mineralization to test the extent of the deposit and include infill drilling to increase the confidence in the resource as we move Tres Cruces forward.”
Currie noted that the mineralization includes 173-meter averaging 3.118 grams per ton (g/t) gold (Au) from 92m to 265m in hole RTC-255, which ended in mineralization.
The company said the PEA highlighted the following takeaways:
- Pre-Tax NPV at a 5% discount rate (NPV 5%) of US$294.3 million
- After-Tax NPV 5% of US$165.9 million
- After-Tax Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 33.0%; 2.1 year payback at US$1,700/oz
- Average gold production of 68,000 ounces annually over an initial oxide mine life of seven years. Peak gold production of 81,000 ounces in Year 2
- Initial Capital expenditure of US$125.2 million
- Average Daily Throughput: 5,800 tons per day (tpd) over initial mine life
- At least 588,000 ounces of gold mined over the initial mine life of seven years
Recovered gold is estimated at 481,000 ounces over the initial mine life
The PEA evaluates the economics of mining the Tres Cruces Oxide Gold Deposit through conventional open pit mining and heap leach processing for gold recovery to doré. The study was prepared by M3 Engineering and Technology of Tucson, Arizona and Lima, Peru, in cooperation with Nilsson Mine Services.
In terms of mining and processing, Anacortes said the Tres Cruces Oxide project presented in the PEA will employ conventional open pit mining with heap leach processing on a 365 day per year, 24 hour per day operating basis. The process will consist of a crushing circuit, a heap leach pad, a recovery plant, and water management ponds, revealed the company.
Mined rock from the pit will be transported to the crusher by haul truck. A 6,000 tpd, three-stage crushing plant will reduce run-of-mine (ROM) to minus 16 mm. Crusher product will be transported to the heap leach pad via a conveyor belt and stacker system.
Based on preliminary column testing at a crush size of 16 mm, a gold recovery of 81.7% is being used in the PEA. Anacortes said it intends to conduct an extensive metallurgical program during 2022 to confirm this recovery with metallurgical samples collected during the upcoming drilling program.
Anacortes said it will be hosting a conference call to discuss the results of the PEA on March 8, 2022, at 4:30 pm ET (1:30 pm PST).
Investors can use the pre-registration link here.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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