Kaminak Gold has reported the results of an NI 43-101-compliant preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its 100% owned Coffee heap-leach gold project 130 km south of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada. The study indicated that the project could become a significant gold producer, yielding close to 450,000 oz of gold in its first two years of operation and producing an average of 167,000 oz/y over an 11-year mine life at all-in sustaining cash costs of $688/oz.
The Coffee PEA envisages an owner-operated, open-pit mine targeting 53 million mt of primarily oxide facies material at an average diluted grade of 1.23 g/mt gold. The study incorporates a three-stage crushing circuit and a valley fill heap leach facility designed by Knight Piésold, along with a standard carbon-adsorption gold recovery plant to produce a total of 1.86 million oz of gold doré over the life of mine.
Initial capital costs to develop the Coffee project are estimated at C$305 million, including a 15% contingency.
The Coffee PEA is based on an indicated and inferred mineral resource estimate derived from 961 diamond core and reverse circulation drill holes completed from 2010 to 2013 for a total of 185,000 m. The estimate includes 719,000 oz indicated in 14 million mt grading 1.56 g/mt gold, and 3.43 million oz inferred in 79 million mt grading 1.36 g/mt gold, using a base-case cut-off of 0.5 g/mt gold for oxide and transitional material and 1 g/mt gold for sulphide material.
The base case assumes an owner-operated open-pit mine, three-stage crushing to a nominal 12.5 mm, a valley-fill heap leach facility, and a carbon adsorption gold recovery plant to produce gold doré. Other assumptions include access to site via an all-season road and diesel power generation. Total installed power, including process equipment and other site infrastructure, is estimated to be 5 MW. The average operating power demand is 3.6 MW.
The proposed heap-leach processing rate of 5 million mt/y was used, along with deposit and pit geometry constraints, to estimate the mining equipment fleet needed for the project. The fleet has an estimated maximum capacity of 90,000 mt/d total material moved, which would be sufficient for the life-of-mine plan.
