16:20:27 EDT Tue 14 May 2024
Enter Symbol
or Name
USA
CA



Goldmining Inc
Symbol GOLD
Shares Issued 173,672,222
Close 2023-07-21 C$ 1.24
Market Cap C$ 215,353,555
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Goldmining PEA pegs La Mina posttax NPV at $274M (U.S.)

2023-07-24 09:52 ET - News Release

Mr. Alastair Still reports

GOLDMINING ANNOUNCES POSITIVE PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT FOR THE LA MINA PROJECT, COLOMBIA, WITH LIFE OF MINE PRODUCTION OF 1.74 MILLION GOLD EQUIVALENT OUNCES

Goldmining Inc. has released the results of an updated preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on the La Mina project located in Antioquia, Colombia. The updated PEA incorporates the recently discovered La Garrucha deposit into the mine plan, which was the subject of a maiden mineral resource estimate announced on Jan. 23, 2023. Please refer to the company's news release dated Jan. 23, 2023, for further details.

All currency amounts herein are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.

PEA highlights:

  • Total projected life of mine (LOM) production of approximately 1.74 million gold equivalent ounces averaging 143,100 ounces over the estimated 12-year life;
  • Projected LOM production of 1.29 million ounces of gold, 203.9 million pounds of copper and 2.98 million ounces of silver at recoveries of 91 per cent, 80 per cent and 64 per cent, respectively;
  • After-tax net present value (5 per cent) of approximately $274-million at base case commodity prices of $1,750 per ounce of gold, $21 per ounce of silver and $3.50 per pound of copper, and approximately $434-million at spot commodity prices;
  • Total cash cost of $786 per ounce of gold and all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1,142 per ounce of gold (net of byproduct credits);
  • Initial capital expenditures of approximately $425-million for a 15,000-tonne-per-day processing facility fed by a conventional truck and loader open-pit mining operation with sustaining capital and mine closure expenditures of approximately $193-million.

Alastair Still, chief executive officer of Goldmining, commented: "We are pleased to update our PEA on La Mina, demonstrating the value we have created through the exploration discovery made at La Garrucha, such that the combined project represents a significant deposit of gold and copper with an attractive head grade above one g/t [gram per tonne] gold equivalent. Deposits of this scale with exploration upside and robust economics are becoming increasingly scarce, and La Mina exemplifies our efforts to advance our portfolio of projects in the Americas to unlock value for our shareholders. With current metal prices well above the $1,750 per ounce of gold and $3.50 per pound of copper used in the PEA, we believe the project is well positioned for further enhanced economics and potential resource expansion."

Tim Smith, vice-president of exploration for Goldmining, commented: "La Mina comprises a classic porphyry cluster of multiple gold-copper deposits, with exploration potential for additional discoveries within the broader mineral system. Compared to many copper porphyry deposits globally, La Mina has a high ratio of gold to copper and as such the feed grade at La Mina of 1.01 g/t gold equivalent is well above global averages for minable porphyry systems. La Mina also has the added advantages of being located in moderate topography with existing road and power infrastructure, located just 40 kilometres from the provincial capital city of Medellin, as compared to many porphyry copper deposits that are in remote locations and at extreme elevations. We look forward to evaluating further opportunities to expand the mineral resources at the existing deposits and to work towards additional discovery within the prospective regional land package."

The PEA is preliminary in nature, and there is no certainty that the reported results will be realized. Mineral resources used for the PEA include inferred mineral resources which are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the projected economic performance will be realized. The purpose of the PEA is to demonstrate the economic viability of the La Mina project, and the results are only intended as an initial, first-pass review of the project economics based on preliminary information.

The PEA examined several mining scenarios with varying rates of production and cut-off grades and determined that a 12.2-year LOM and 61.3 million mineralized tonnes demonstrate robust financial returns using consensus metal prices.

Construction of the project is expected to take approximately two years to complete and includes an assumed 15,000-tonne-per-day process plant. The operation is envisioned to produce both a copper concentrate with precious metal credits and dore. Capital and operating costs are estimated as of 2023 benchmarks and leverages on the project's proximity to established infrastructure including roads, power and an available work force.

To prepare the PEA, the company engaged Resource Development Associates Inc. of Highlands Ranch, Colo., which has been involved with the La Mina project for the past 10 years and recently prepared the mineral resource estimate for the La Garrucha deposit.

The company will continue to assess potential opportunities to further optimize the La Mina gold-copper porphyry open-pit mine, with a view to advancing optimization work and additional studies in the coming years.

The project is well positioned to potentially further enhance economics by utilizing metals prices which are currently higher than the base case metal prices used in the PEA.

The mining plan utilized in the PEA uses conventional truck/loader open-pit methods employing a fleet of trucks with haulage capacity of 139 tonnes and front-end loaders equipped with 19-cubic-metre buckets. Three pit areas will be mined over a period of 12.2 production years. One preproduction year of stripping will be required followed by two years of stripping concurrent with production. Mineralized material will be transported by haulage trucks to a nearby process plant and waste rock will either be stored as backfill or in proximity to the open pits. Mining will be conducted at an initial rate of 33 million total tonnes per annum (mtpa) or 91 kilo tonnes per day (ktpd) to a peak rate of 52 mtpa (142 ktpd) for total movement that will sustain the process plant.

The process plant feed is contained within an optimized subset of the mineral resource set out in the pit-constrained mineral resource estimate illustrated herein. Collectively, the three pits contain 61.3 Mt of process plant feed (inclusive of mining dilution and loss factors) averaging 0.19 per cent copper, 0.72 g/t gold and 2.36 g/t silver. Over LOM, 356 Mt of waste rock mined results in a waste to mineralized material strip ratio of 5.8:1.

Existing royalties have been included in the economic analysis and comprise a 2-per-cent net smelter return (NSR) royalty held by Gold Royalty Corp., and a gross revenue royalty of 4 per cent on precious metals and 5 per cent on base metals imposed by the Colombian National Mining Agency.

A recent metallurgical testing program was completed by ALS Global, based in Kamloops, B.C., Canada. The test work has identified an optimal process flowsheet, including a typical copper concentrate and tailings leaching, that achieves recoveries for gold and copper of 91 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively. Key components that describe the unit operating processes include the following:

  • Primary crushing and grinding in a SAG/ball mill circuit to a nominal 250-to-100-microm grind size;
  • Froth flotation to generate a copper rougher concentrate which is reground and subjected to two stages of cleaner flotation for copper grade improvement; copper concentrate is thickened, filtered and prepared for shipment to a smelter;
  • Cyanidation leach, carbon adsorption, carbon stripping and thermal regeneration, electrowinning, and smelting to produce dore;
  • Cyanide destruction of the final tailings.

Capital costs for the project have been estimated by initial and sustaining capital categories. Mine closure has been accounted for and is expected to reclaim tailings and waste rock storage facilities.

Goldmining will file an updated technical report for the La Mina PEA within 45 days of the date hereof.

Qualified persons

Scott E. Wilson, CPG, SME-RM, is with Resource Development Associates and is the independent consultant specializing in mineral reserve and resource calculation reporting, mining project analysis, and due diligence evaluations. Mr. Wilson is acting as the qualified person pursuant to Canadian Securities Administrator's National Instrument 43-101 -- Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for the PEA and is the primary author of the technical report for the mineral resource estimate and has reviewed and approved the mineral resource estimate and the PEA summarized in this news release. Mr. Wilson has over 31 years of experience in surface mining, resource estimation and strategic mine planning. Mr. Wilson is independent of the company under NI 43-101. Mr. Wilson, a qualified person, has verified the data underlying the information disclosed herein, including sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information, by reviewing the reports of methodologies, results, and all procedures undertaken for quality assurance and quality control in a manner consistent with industry practice, and all matters were consistent and accurate according to his professional judgement. There were no limitations on the verification process.

Paulo Pereira, PGeo, president of Goldmining and a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101, has supervised the preparation of this news release and has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical information contained herein.

About Goldmining Inc.

The company is a public mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of gold assets in the Americas. Through its disciplined acquisition strategy, the company now controls a diversified portfolio of resource-stage gold and gold-copper projects in Canada, the United States, Brazil, Colombia and Peru. The company also owns more than 21 million shares of Gold Royalty, 9.8 million shares of U.S. Goldmining Inc. and 16.6 million shares of NevGold Corp.

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