Argentina tripled lithium carbonate production capacity in last two years
Argentina, the world's No. 4 lithium producer, has four projects in production.
G Mining Ventures (TSX: GMIN) reiterated on Thursday that its Tocantinzinho gold project in Brazil is still on track and on budget for commercial production for the second half this year.
Construction of the gold operation in Pará state, which began in fall of 2022, is currently at 89% completion, according to G Mining, with detailed engineering and procurement done and infrastructures commissioned. The remaining construction is focused on areas related to the mine’s processing plant.
The overall project itself is 87%, trending on time for commercial production in H2 2024 as the company had previously targeted.
Tocantinzinho is host to an open-pit gold deposit located on underexplored land covering nearly 1,000 sq. km. The property has direct access via 103 km of all-weather roads starting from the national highway, the BR-163, that links the industries in southern Brazil to the city of Belem in the north.
To date, G Mining has spent $433 million on the project and committed a further $16 million in expenditures. The total spending commitment of $449 million represents about 98% of the project total, and is tracking in line with the project’s feasibility study (FS).
According to the FS report from 2021, the Tocantinzinho gold project has an initial capital cost of $427 million and a life of mine sustaining capital of $71 million. Its after-tax net present value is pegged at $622 million (at 5% discount), with an internal rate of return of 24.2%.
Over a mine life of 10.5 years, Tocantinzinho is expected to produce 1.83 million oz. of gold, averaging 175,000 oz. per year. Over the first five years, annual gold production is expected to reach 196,000 oz.
The next step towards production will be the plant commissioning activities, which are expected this month starting with primary crusher and ore reclaim system, the company said.
Shares of G Mining Ventures were up 0.9% at C$2.20 apiece in Toronto at market open, near the midpoint of its 52-week range of C$2.13-C$2.34. The company’s market capitalization is C$984.6 million ($720m).
