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A power purchase deal with a Brazilian energy provider has fixed pricing for three years and cut all-in electricity costs estimated in a 2022 feasibility study for G Mining Ventures’ (TSXV: GMIN; US-OTC: GMINF) Tocantinzinho gold project, the company says.
The agreement with Companhia Energetica de Minas Gerais (CEMIG) will fix energy pricing from Mar. 1, 2024 until Dec. 31, 2026, slash the cost by about 25% and ensure renewably generated hydroelectric power will meet the project’s requirements through commissioning, ramp up and initial years of commercial production.
The open pit project in northern Para state is on track for commercial production in the second half of 2024.
Electricity costs make up about 25% of processing costs and about 10% of total operating costs, the company says, and the guarantee of 100% renewably generated power is a “major ESG milestone.”
The agreement grants renewable energy certificates, which confirm the supply as renewably generated, and G Mining Ventures says the energy deal will enable it “to produce gold ounces with Scope 1 emissions in the lowest quartile of the CO2 emissions curve when compared to similar operations in the Americas.”
“The low-cost power generated from renewable hydroelectric sources will ensure that Tocantinzinho is in the lower quartile of the global gold production curve both in terms of cost and carbon emissions,” Louis-Pierre Gignac, G Mining Venture’s president and CEO, noted in a press release.
The project is expected to produce an average of 175,000 oz. gold a year (196,000 oz. a year during the first five years), for total life of mine production of 1.83 million oz. gold over a 10.5 year life.
An updated feasibility study in February 2022 envisioned a conventional 12,600 tonne per day plant, with the total cost to build an open pit mine expected to be $458 million. Tocantinzinho is fully funded.
Tocantinzinho has measured and indicated resources of 48.1 million tonnes grading 1.36 grams gold per tonne for 2.1 million oz. contained gold and another 1.6 million inferred tonnes averaging 0.99 gram gold for 50,000 ounces.
G Mining Ventures was formed in October 2020. It acquired the project in August 2021 for C$115 million and made a positive construction decision in September 2022.
At press time in Toronto, G Mining Ventures was trading at C$1.10 per share, near the high-end of its 52-week trading range of C56¢ and C$1.18. The company has about 448 million common shares outstanding for a market cap of roughly C$492 million ($365m).
