Barrick’s quarterly gold and copper output edges higher
Barrick Gold's second-quarter gold output edged up by almost 0.9% from the previous three months.
Romarco Minerals is touting its Haile Gold Mine in South Carolina as a low-cost operation with robust economics that could be in production by the end of 2011.
According to the company’s feasibility study, released Feb. 9, the project has a net present value (NPV) of US$279 million, discounted at 5%, with an internal rate of return (IRR) of 19.6%, assuming a gold price of $950/oz. At $1300 gold, the NPV jumps to $693 million at a 5% discount with a 37.6% IRR. The $950/oz base case is expected to generate pre-tax cash of $508 million.
The proposed open-pit mine contains 2.0 million tonnes of proven and probable gold reserves at 2.06 g/t. Romarco Minerals is budgeting $275 million in capital costs to bring the project into operation, with an average cash cost of $347/oz for the first five years of the mine’s 13-year life.
On Thursday, CEO Diane Garrett said the project is costed at less than a third of Romarco’s market cap, meaning the company will have a range of options available for financing.
The mill throughput is pegged at 7,000 tpd, with 172,000 ounces of gold slated for the first year of production, and 150,000 for the first five years. Recoveries will average 83.7%. The plant design incorporates conventional precious metals recovery processes including jaw crushing, semi-autogenous and ball milling, flotation, fine grinding of the flotation concentrate, and carbon-in-leach cyanidation.
Romarco says the property has considerable exploration upside, with the mineralized system open in all directions and at depth. Measured resources have increased by 85% since an initial feasibility study was done in 2009; at the time the project was envisioned as several small deposits, but drilling has since confirmed a single large system such that would be mined from one large pit, Mining Weekly reported.
“With the rapid growth of Haile, there is no doubt that we are moving towards an expansion scenario,” Garrett said.
The 2011 exploration program consists of 110,000 metres of reverse circulation (RC) and core drilling.
For more details check the news release
