RE: Can someone please share content of yesterdays Mining journal article16 Jun 2022 12:43
SolGold is working to boost the potential of its Cascabel copper-gold project in Imbabura, Ecuador through optimisations and exploration drilling to show its porphyry cluster potential as it prepares to update its pre-feasibility study (PFS), CEO Darryl Cuzzubbo told Mining Journal.
In May, SolGold reported a measured and indicated resource of 2.7 billion tonnes grading 0.53% copper equivalent at the Tandayama-America (TAM) porphyry copper-gold deposit a few kilometers from Cascabel. It also reported it was seeing drilling success at Moran, which is between the two deposits.
"We will include [Moran] but it won't come in time for the PFS addendum as we would have to update the full technical report and have a mine plan over it and we won't have sufficient time for that. We will continue to update our mineral resource estimate as we drill more and this resource is clearly bigger than what we currently see," said Cuzzubbo.
In addition to expanding the Cascabel area resource the company is also working on optimisations to increase the net present value (NPV) of the potential development. "We are pursuing through the next six months in our PFS agenda things like optimising the mine plan further to lower infrastructure costs, lower the amount of development to optimise our surface process infrastructure, which will lower capex, and bringing-in the TAM open pit, which brings production forward, because if we get underground ramp-up delays, we can rely on the TAM open pit. These are the biggest ideas in terms of assuring an additional US$400 to $800 million in NPV," said Cuzzubbo.
SolGold is also working so that the market understands that it is not a one-trick pony and that its value extends beyond Cascabel to include the Porvenir project in southern Ecuador, and a host of other exploration projects, including one adjacent to Solaris Resources' Warintza project.