The permitting process to restart the Premier gold mine, in the Golden Triangle of British Columbia, is nearing completion, junior explorer and developer Ascot Resources reported on Monday.

The TSX-listed company recently received draft permit conditions from the provincial regulators and CEO Derek White said that conditions would be negotiated and accepted over the “next several weeks”, followed by final permit issuance.

Receipt of the final permit would enable full-scale construction activities, including portal preparation and underground development.

“We look forward to being able to advance the project towards production later next year,” White said.

Ascot has made much headway in advancing the project in the past quarter. In July, it announced the signing of an updated benefits agreement with Nisga’a Nation and in August, it reported positive exploration results, including 21 g/t gold over 7 m in a step-out hole at the Premier deposit.

In September, the ball and semi-autogenous grinding mills were delivered. White said that significant progress had been made and continued to be made on the early works programme.

An independent feasibility study has outlined a low capital restart plan for the Premier gold project (PGP), based on a proven and probable reserve of 6.2-million tonnes grading 5.9 g/t gold and 19.7 g/t gold.

The study is based on four underground mining operations – Silver Coin, Big Missouri, Premier and Red Mountain – feeding a centralised 2 500 t/d processing facility at PGP. The mining operations will be sequenced over eight years to initially produce 1.1-million ounces of gold and three-million ounces of silver.

Mining will start from the Silver Coin and Big Missouri deposits, which will be followed by the Red Mountain deposit in Year 3 and then the Premier deposit.

The April 2020 feasibility study highlighted an after-tax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of C$341-million and an internal rate of return of 51% at $1 400/oz gold.  Ascot earlier this year revised the initial capital estimate for the project from C$147-million to C$176-million, adding 20% to its estimated expenditure.