Beadell eyes underground mine at Tucano
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A prefeasibility study (PFS) into the underground potential of the Tucano gold mine, in Brazil, revealed that the project could recover some 310 000 oz of gold over a mine life of seven to eight years.
Gold miner Beadell Resources reported on Thursday that the Urucum North underground project would require a capital investment of $18.1-million, and was expected to have an all-in sustaining cost of $825/oz.
The PFS estimated that the project would have a pre-tax net present value of $49-million and an internal rate of return of 30%, with the pay-back period estimated at four years.
The PFS was based on an underground probable ore reserve of 2.97-million tonnes, grading 3.61 g/t gold for 344 500 oz of contained gold.
Beadell told shareholders that future deeper drilling at Urucum North would be aimed at upgrading the inferred mineral resource to the measured and indicated category, and ultimately converting it into an ore reserve, as well as continuing to explore the mineralisation at depth.
The gold miner was expected to release a revised life-of-mine plan for the Tucano operation, based on optimisations that would maiximise cash flow and profit rather than gold production and throughput.
The results of the optimisations would shape the openpit mine plan going forward at Tucana, which, in turn, would also drive the timing of the next steps in scheduling the potential development of the Urucum North underground project.
“There are many moving parts in play at Tucano as the new management team completely reconstructs an openpit mine plan going forward, coupled with a review of the optimum throughput for the Tucano mill as we move towards 2017,” said CEO and MD Simon Jackson.
“The results of the PFS will feed into those calculations, provide us with timing of the definitive feasibility study, and ultimately lead to a potential underground development decision.”
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