TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Turkey-focused project developer Aldridge Minerals on Monday announced that it had exercised its option to earn a 100% working interest in its flagship Yenipazar polymetallic volcanogenic massive sulphide project in the country, after it delivered the Yenipazar feasibility study to Alacer Gold.

Alacer would retain a 6% net profit interest (NPI) in the Yenipazar property until operational revenues had reached $165-million, after which the NPI would increase to 10%.

The feasibility study, which was published in April, had placed an after-tax net present value of $323-million on the project, using a 7% discount. This included a 1.6% net profit royalty to the Turkish government and Alacer’s NPI.

The after-tax and after-NPI internal rate of return was estimated to be 22.5%, which would result in the $382-million project being paid back in 2.9 years.

Each year, the operation was expected to produce 62 642 oz of gold, 1.9-million ounces of silver, 11.2-million pounds of copper, 33.8-million pounds of lead and 56.3-million pounds of zinc. Over the life of the project, it was expected to produce about 696 482 oz of gold, 21.2-million ounces of silver, 120.1-million pounds of copper, 368-million pounds of lead and 563.8-million pounds of zinc.

The mineral reserves for the Yenipazar project comprised three different mineralisation types to be mined and processed in four phases, including oxide mineralisation, which represents 11% of total, copper-enriched mineralisation, which represents 9% of the total and sulphide mineralisation, which represents 80% of the total.

A November resource update estimated the Yenipazar resource to hold 29.69-million tons grading 0.95 g/t gold, 31.3 g/t silver, 0.31% copper, 1.01% lead and 1.47% zinc in the National Instrument 43-101-compliant indicated category. At these gradings, the project is expected to hold about 900 000 oz of gold, 29.85-million ounces of silver, 204.8-million pounds of copper, 660.2-million pounds of lead and 961.2-million pounds of zinc in the indicated category.

The Yenipazar project is located about 220 km east-southeast of Ankara, the capital of Turkey, 60 km south of Yozgat, the provincial centre, and about 120 km north-west of Kayseri, a city of one-million people. The project is well served by existing infrastructure, including paved roads and a railroad, and will be connected to the national power grid through the construction of a 17 km 154 kV power line.

The Port of Iskenderun was identified as the preferred port for the shipping of containerised concentrates and is located about 500 km to the south on the Mediterranean Sea. The concentrates would be containerised and trucked on existing roads about 75 km south-west of the project to a railhead in Himmetdede, where it would then be transported by rail the remaining distance to the port.

Aldridge said it intended to submit an environmental-impact assessment (EIA) report on the Yenipazar project to the Turkish authorities early in the third quarter, while it was also working on completing EIA and social-impact assessment reports to international standards.

As soon as the EIA had been submitted, the company expected to proceed to apply for operating, construction and other required permits.

Once started, construction was expected to take about 21 months, followed by a two-month period of plant commissioning and production ramp-up, which would take about six months.