Mining’s old guard needs strong medicine
A new report details subpar investor returns in the mining industry over the last decade, particularly big cap diversified companies which have not adapted to new realities.
Anaconda Mining (TSX: ANX; US-OTC: ANXGF) began a feasibility study on Goldboro in February that it expects to finish by the end of 2019. The study will incorporate results from 22,000 metres of diamond drilling the company completed in 2017 and 2018 as well as the ongoing bulk sample, and an updated mineral resource the company expects to table in 2019’s third quarter.
The company tabled an updated resource estimate in 2018 that totals 3.7 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 4.96 grams gold per tonne for 602,700 oz. gold
The company has completed the mining phase of a 10,000 tonne underground bulk sample at its Golboro gold project in Newfoundland. The company mined three stopes from belts one and two of its Boston-Richardson gold system, and intends to barge the material to its Pine Cove mill in Point Rousse, Newfoundland, in 2019’s second quarter for processing.
The company tabled an updated Golboro resource estimate in October 2018 that totals 3.7 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 4.96 grams gold per tonne for 602,700 oz. gold, an 11% increase in grade and a 15% increase in ounces from December 2017.
The project also contains 2.1 million inferred tonnes at 6.63 grams gold for 453,200 oz. gold, a 56% increase in grade and a 30% increase in ounces from December 2017.
It tabled an updated preliminary economic assessment for Goldboro in 2018 that outlined an $88 million after tax net present value at a 5% discount rate and a 29.3% after-tax internal rate of return.
The company recently completed trade off studies that support the initial mine development scenario outlined in its PEA. It says the optimal approach at Goldboro is to use selective mining methods and process material at roughly 575 tonnes per day.
Goldcorp recently chose Anaconda to be one of three finalists at its 2019 #DisruptMining event in Toronto during this year’s Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada convention. The company will present a new technology it collaborated with Memorial University to develop called Sustainable Mining by Drilling. Anaconda believes the technology will allow it to mine steeply dipping, narrow vein gold deposits in Newfoundland economically.
This article first appeared in The Northern Miner.
