Fortune Bay (TSXV: FOR) has received positive results from the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its 100%-owned Goldfields project near Uranium City, Saskatchewan. The base case assessed a conventional open pit mine and processing with gravity and leaching of the gravity tailings.
The Goldfields after-tax net present value (5% discount rate) is C$285 million with an after-tax internal rate of return of 35.2%. With a gold price of $1,650 and an initial capital expenditure of C$234 million, the project has a payback of 1.7 years.
Average annual gold production will be 101,000 oz., with 122,000 oz. in each of years one through four. Over an 8.3-year life of mine, 835,000 oz. of gold will be produced. The anticipated all-in sustaining cost will be $889 per ounce.
The mill capacity will be 7,500 t/d with over 80% of the mineable ounces coming from the Box deposit. Average gold recovery will be 95.3%.
The Box and Althona deposits at Goldfields have 22.6 million indicated tonnes averaging 1.34 g/t gold for 980,000 contained ounces. The inferred portion is 6.0 million tonnes at 0.92 g/t gold for 180,000 contained ounces.