G Mining Ventures Corp (TSX-V:GMIN, OTCQX:GMINF) has revealed that the company’s board has made a formal decision to proceed with the construction of its flagship Tocantinzinho Gold project (TZ) in the mining friendly Brazilian state of Pará.
The company also provided a sweeping project development update.
In a statement, G Mining CEO Louis-Pierre Gignac said: "GMIN was reorganized in October 2020 with the objective of building the next intermediate gold producer. In less than two years, the management team acquired a great project in TZ, released an updated Feasibility Study in February 2022, and completed a $481 million comprehensive financing package in a turbulent and volatile capital markets environment.”
He added: “This construction decision is an important milestone which has been achieved by de-risking the technical, permitting and funding aspects, and that confirm the TZ project is both a robust and responsible development opportunity. We are happy to see step one of our "Buy, Build, Operate" strategy progressing as planned, and are excited to commence full construction of TZ, for what will be one of the largest primary gold mines in Brazil."
"The updated feasibility study from February 2022 incorporated many of inflationary pressures seen in the industry, while still demonstrating very positive results of NPV5% of $622 million and IRR of 24% using a $1,600 per ounce gold price," he said.
Investors can see the economic highlights from the February 2022 Tocantinzinho feasibility study here.
The company said along with its Brazilian subsidiary, Brazauro Recursos Minerais SA, it maintains active contact with all relevant environmental and governmental authorities.
In terms of environmental permitting GMIN has received all the necessary environmental installation permits to progress with full construction, which include:
- Site installation license valid until August 2024
- Forest Suppression Authorization and related fauna and flora permits for the site
- Tubular well drilling and use permit for the temporary camp and construction
- Grant for release of sanitary sewage from the site
- Tubular well permit for permanent camp and aggregate plant
- Licenses for the transmission line, landfill, concrete plant, fuel station and tailings dam are currently valid and being further extended by SEMAS
The company said that site preparation activities at TZ started on August 15 and focused initially on the permanent camp area where full construction is scheduled to kick off in September.
Human resources
Brazauro has grown to a workforce of 252 employees and contractors. Brazilian employees represent 98% of the workforce, of which 70% are from local communities and the State of Pará.
“Additional recruitment job fair days were held in our neighboring communities where we collected almost 200 resumes and conducted over 100 interviews,” said the company. The firm said it now has over 1,000 resumes in its database in its effort to hire locally.
The construction working training programs in collaboration with the National Industrial Training Service ("SENAI") have graduated 24 successful students from its first training camp.
Procurement and project expenditures
The company said that procurement to date totals $136 million. Commitments and expenditures are tracking in line with the Feasibility Study from February 2022 and have largely focused on major equipment for the process plant and mining.
Equipment deliveries will be staggered over time, with the first mining excavator and four mine trucks already delivered to the site, said the company.
G Mining highlighted that detailed engineering is 30% complete and on track to service construction with all required drawings to start execution. The engineering of the exploration camp expansion is completed and the process plant 3D model initialed to a detailed engineering level of accuracy.
Mathieu Gignac has been appointed as project director, Julie-Anaïs Debreil as Vice president geology and resources, and Eduardo Leão as sustainability manager.
Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com
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