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Volta Grande project, Brazil’s to-be largest gold mine. (Image courtesy of Belo Sun)
Belo Sun Mining Corp.’s (TSX:BSX) feasibility study of Volta Grande project, Brazil’s to-be largest gold mine, should whet investors appetite, as the Canadian miner betters the Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) put out in early 2014, a report issued by CIBC shows.
Brazilian authorities have put significant obstacles in the way of the company’s plans to develop the mine on a tributary of the Amazon River.
In November 2013 a federal court suspended the company’s environmental permit, saying Belo Sun had not taken necessary steps to analyze the mine’s potential impact on indigenous peoples who live within a few kilometers of the mine site.
Last year another federal judge said that the mine stood to cause “negative and irreversible damage to the quality of life and cultural heritage” of the Juruna and Arara peoples and that Belo Sun must complete a study of this issue before it can proceed.
Now that the new assessment is ready, analysts believe the company’s plan for Volta may finally take off.
“One of the highlights of the study is an increased production profile; the feasibility delivers an average annual gold production of 205,000 ounces vs. the PEA at 167,309 ounces; and with higher grades will reach a range of 250,000 to 300,000 ounces during the first 10 years of production,” CIBC’s report says.
Volta Grande was supposed to begin operating in 2016, but market estimates are now placing gold production from the mine back as far as 2020.
Image courtesy of Belo Sun
Comments
Brazilian gold miner
How is this to be Brazil´s largest gold mine when Kinross´ Paracatu mine produces over 400,000 ounces per year and has resources and reserves much larger than Belo Sun´s project?