Veris Gold has entered into a toll milling agreement with Newmont to process ore at its Jerritt Canyon mill in Nevada. The mill is operated by Veris Gold USA Inc., a 100%-owned subsidiary of Veris. Under the agreement, which ends in Q4 2014, Newmont will deliver up to 45,000 tons of ore monthly. Batch-processed, this ore will allow Veris flexibility in processing from its three Jerritt Canyon underground gold mines.
Newmont will pay a milling fee, to be adjusted quarterly, to reflect input cost changes associated with ore processing, while lowering overall cash costs. Additionally, all doré produced from the ore will remain property of Newmont throughout the process and the associated fee allayed to each ton will be regarded as a separate revenue stream to offset costs.
In related news, Veris has also been granted approval from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection to begin discharging tailings into its new state-of-the-art facility at Jerritt Canyon. The new tailings facility is double-lined and features recovery of any leakage collected from the synthetic double-liner system, called Drainliner, which is manufactured by Agru America located in Fernley, Nevada.
Concurrent with the transition to the new TSF2, Veris will close the currently operating, 30-year-old facility. Discharge of tailings slurry to TSF1 will cease by Q4 2013 so reclamation can commence in 2014.
