Name of the Project
Haile underground gold mine project.

Location
The gold mine is located in Lancaster County, in the US state of South Carolina.

Client
OceanaGold Corporation.

Project Description
The project involves the construction of an underground mine at the Haile gold mine.

The project has total reserves of 2.02-million ounces and measured and indicated resources of 4.04-million ounces.

The project is modelled on mineralisation located beneath the openpit reserves, almost all of which are included within the openpit resources.

Envisaged is underground production of 80 000 oz/y to 100 000 oz/y of gold (from 2019 to 2025) to complement an estimated 150 000 oz/y of gold production from the openpit (2017 to 2030).

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The PEA estimated an after-tax, internal rate of return improvement of about 40%, based on previous National Instrument 43-101-compliant technical report economics and the incremental impact of the underground mine at a $1 250/oz gold price.

A payback period of three years on underground capital expenditure is forecast.

Value
$380-million.

Duration
Haile achieved commercial production in October 2017.

Latest Developments
OceanaGold has announced capital investment of between $40-million and $45-million for Haile for 2018.

Capital expenditures (capex) at Haile will include the procurement and installation of a pebble crusher, a tower mill and Isa mill for additional grinding capacity, as well as other infrastructure required to debottleneck the plant and incrementally increase plant throughput rates towards the optimised design of between 3.5-million tonnes a year and 4-million tonnes a year.

Plant recoveries at Haile have consistently averaged in the low 80% range since the start of commercial production, with the grind size being 19 µ. The installation of additional fine-grinding capacity should reduce the grind size to 13 microns, which will further increase recoveries.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
Not stated.

On Budget and on Time?
Not stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
OceanaGold +1 604 235 3360 and email info@oceanagold.com.