Mining Journal article19 Sep 2023 14:05
SolGold continues with a strategic review process as it looks to shave at least US$1 billion of the initial development cost of its Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador, chief executive Scott Caldwell told at the 2023 Gold Forum Americas in Colorado Springs, Colorado, while B2Gold is looking at a smaller development at Gramalote in Antioquia, Argentina, chief executive Clive Johnson told; Caldwell aims to announce the new vision for Cascabel and an updated resource estimate in the March quarter of 2024. The 2022 prefeasibility study outlined an average production of 132,000tpy of copper, 358,000ozpa of gold and 1Moz/y of silver.
"We would like to keep the initial capital cost well below $1.2-1.3 billion rather than the initial capital cost of $2.7 billion. It is lower throughput, mining higher grade material from the same resource."
"We have updated the resource with the drilling that has been done to date, the same flow sheet with little tweaks like probably not building a copper concentrate pipeline to the sea. We are excited about it as it also reduces the development schedule", said Caldwell.
B2Gold has just announced that it will buy out AngloGold Ashanti's stake in Gramalote after the partners failed to find a buyer for a bargain $20 million initial payment. The company believes that with just one company to satisfy, it can reduce the scale and scope of the project to something cheaper and more profitable.
It was never looked at as a smaller mine because two substantial producers needed probably 150,000ozpa minimum to each of our accounts, so the mine had to be 350,000-400,000ozpa. The push was always to see if we could exploit a 4Moz resource of low-grade material and make it work.
"If we don't need 400,000ozpa to satisfy two companies, what if it's 200,000ozpa for a single company? We believe that if we look at a smaller project, it can drop the capital dramatically with a smaller mill and lower our environmental footprint as well" said Johnson.
For SolGold, a lower initial capital may help it fund a buyer or development partner. To this end, in addition to meeting with copper and gold producers, Caldwell is also looking to repair relationships with two of the company's main shareholders: BHP and Newcrest Mining.
They were believed to be unhappy with how SolGold finally merged with Cornerstone Capital Resources to consolidate ownership of Cascabel in one company, which ultimately resulted in Caldwell leading the company. They both voted against me at the shareholder meeting last year, so we have been working hard to improve those relationships. I am meeting with Newmont here, and I hope they really look at the data before they decide what they want to do" said Caldwell.
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