Mexico’s proposed higher mining royalties could block nearly $7bn in investments
The Mexican government proposed raising mining royalties under the argument that metal prices have risen in recent years.
Golden Predator Mining (CVE: GPY) says the higher price of gold is good reason to advance the reopening of the former Brewery Creek gold mine 55 km east of Dawson City, in Canada’s Yukon Territory.
The exploration program being stepped up and heavy equipment is being mobilized to the site. Pre-construction work in preparation for reopening is expected to begin in earnest in 2020.
The former Brewery Creek mine was a heap leach operation that produced 525,094 oz. of gold from 1996 until its closure in 2002
The former Brewery Creek mine was a heap leach operation that produced 525,094 oz. of gold from 1996 until its closure in 2002. The original leach pad was designed with 10 cells, but only seven were built to date, and the company has plans to expand leaching into all 10 permitted cells.
One of the first steps Golden Predator is taking is to remove brush and topsoil from the leach pad so that it can assess the feasibility of producing gold from the oxidized material that remains. Other work that needs to be done includes re-establishing access roads, determining if the existing foundation can be reused for the adsorption-desorption recovery plant, building a crushing-conveying system, removing mineralization from existing pits, beginning monthly water sampling, expand environmental studies, and completing a feasibility study.
The 2014 preliminary economic assessment estimated both oxide and sulphide resources. The indicated oxide resource is 577,000 oz. (14.2 million tonnes at 1.27 g/t gold), and the inferred oxide resource is 279,000 oz. (9.3 million tonnes at 0.93 g/t gold). The indicated sulphide resource is 142,000 oz. (3.5 million tonnes at 1.28 g/t gold), and the inferred sulphide resource is 546,000 oz. (12.4 million tonnes at 1.37 g/t gold). The depth of the sulphide mineralization is largely untested.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
