Generation Mining Ltd. has contracted with all of the major engineering companies that will participate in the feasibility study on its Marathon palladium-copper project in northwestern Ontario. The feasibility study is expected to take approximately seven to eight months, with completion expected in early 2021.
The feasibility study team consists of G-Mining Services, mine plan and mineral reserves, infrastructure scope of work and integration of the costs and economic analysis. Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc. is progressing the process facility layout and design based on the metallurgical testing that is currently under way at SGS-Lakefield. Knight-Piesold will design the tailings facility and open-pit geotechnical engineering; and in support of the feasibility study and environment impact interactions, Stantec and Ecometrix. P&E Mining Consultants Inc. will be responsible for the mineral resource estimate.
“I am confident that these firms will optimize the value of the Marathon-PGM property and will continue to de-risk the project,” President and CEO of Gen Mining Jamie Levy said. “Our goal is to maximize the Net Present Value of the project while designing an operation that will minimize environmental impacts and provide economic benefits to the local communities.”
He added that the project will be close to shovel-ready and well-timed to the buoyant palladium market.
At this early stage, the work on the feasibility study will consider an optimized processing and mine production rate that is more aggressive than what was outlined in the Gen mining’s preliminary economic assessment (PEA) back in January. That PEA that contemplated starting at 5,000,000 metric tons per year and expanding to 8,000,000 metric tons per year after five years.
Gen Mining said it is well financed for the next phases of work, including the feasibility study and the restart of the permitting process, with approximately $13.9 million in cash.
The Marathon deposit is the largest undeveloped platinum group metal Mineral Resource in North America. The Marathon property covers a land package of approximately 22,000 hectares. Generation Mining acquired a 51% interest in the Marathon property from Sibanye Stillwater on July 10, 2019, and can increase its interest to 80% by spending $10 million over a period of four years.
