Exploration and development company Revival Gold has announced positive results from the preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Beartrack-Arnett Phase 1 heap leach gold project, in Idaho, US.
The results of the PEA support the TSX-V-listed company’s plans to resume heap leach gold production from Beartrack-Arnett with low restart capital and robust economics, president and CEO Hugh Agro said on Tuesday.
“Beartrack-Arnett ranks as one of the largest independently-owned undeveloped gold deposits in the United States. As a brownfield site, Beartrack-Arnett offers significant existing baseline environmental data, infrastructure, and operating history for Revival Gold to utilise. This should translate into shorter permitting timelines and lower technical and execution risk,” he said.
The PEA concluded that Beartrack-Arnett Phase 1 would produce 72 000 oz/y of gold for a total of 506 000 oz over an initial seven-year mine life at an all-in sustaining cost of $1 057/oz.
Preproduction capital of $100-million would be required and the life-of-mine sustaining capital had been estimated at $61-million.
The study calculated an aftertax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $88-million and an aftertax internal rate of return of 25% at $1 550/oz.
Over the course of the next two years Revival Gold will continue with its exploration strategy to expand the resource base at Beartrack-Arnett, while progressing the Phase 1 heap leach project towards a production decision.
The company would also evaluate the potential for a second phase sulphide milling project.
The Phase 1 PEA only included oxide and partially oxidised mineralisation amenable to gold recovery using standard cyanide heap leach processing. Beartrack-Arnett also hosts a significant sulphide resource, much of which was not included in the PEA.