TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX-listed project developer Treasury Metals on Tuesday announced that it had achieved a significant milestone in developing its flagship Goliath Gold project, in north-western Ontario, after filing an environmental-impact statement (EIS) with the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA).

"The filing of our EIS with [the] CEAA is a key aspect in the federal government's environmental assessment process. With the submission of the EIS, a renewed round of public and Aboriginal consultation and engagement will be initiated. I would encourage participation by all interested parties in this rigorous environmental review,” Treasury president and CEO Martin Walter said in a statement.

Tetra Tech WEI and Treasury's engineering team led development of the EIS, after the CEAA issued the EIS guidelines in February last year.

With Treasury's EIS filing, the legislated period to complete the environmental assessment process restarted.

The EIS covered all aspects of the project's development, operational and closure stages, and addressed all matters related to socioeconomic and environmental effects, and would be used to avoid, mitigate and reduce environmental impacts.

“The EIS will be reviewed internally by the federal regulatory agencies for concordance with the requirements of the EIS guidelines. After this is completed, CEAA will organise a series of public and Aboriginal consultation meetings involving the government, Treasury and the technical consultants who contributed to the EIS.

“The company expects these meetings to be completed within the last two months of 2014. Treasury will continue to be a positive contributor to the local economy in Dryden, Wabigoon and the surrounding areas. Upon commencement of production activities, Treasury will be a provider of high-quality jobs for many years,” Goliath Gold project VP Norm Bush said.

The Goliath project currently had National Instrument 43-101-compliant indicated and inferred resources of 1.7-million ounces of gold and silver. The project, located in the Kenora/Dryden district in north-western Ontario, was slated for near-term Canadian gold production.

Treasury was advancing through the Canadian permitting process to begin production at its openpit gold mine and 2 500 t/d processing facility by 2015. Subsequent underground operations would be developed in the latter years of mine life and would be funded from the project's initial cash flow.

The results of a 2013 drilling programme had defined high-grade, near-surface intersections, indicating significant upside potential for both resource and project economics.

The first phase of the project comprised low initial start-up capital expenditures of about $92-million, with cash flows from the first three years of operations funding underground development.

In August 2012, Treasury completed an updated preliminary economic assessment on its Goliath project, which attached to the project an after-tax net present value, at a 5% discount, of $144-million and an internal rate of return of 32.4%.

The operation was expected to produce 80 000 oz/y to 100 000 oz/y of gold equivalent over the first ten years of the mine's life. The payback period was calculated at 2.8 years. The average feed grade over the life of the project was estimated to average 2.87 g/t gold and 9.3 g/t silver.