The first drill hole is now in progress on the Barbasco target, about 7 kilometres from its Fruta del Norte gold-silver mine in Ecuador.
The company’s exploration program will focus on two targets, Barbasco and Puente-Princesa, to test for mineralization in a geological setting similar to that of Fruta del Norte.
The company acquired Fruta del Norte in 2014 for $240 million from Kinross Gold (TSX:K) (NYSE:KGC), which had to halt operations after being unable to reach an agreement with authorities regarding the terms for developing the asset.
Lundin plans for its 2021 production to be between 380,000 and 420,000 ounces of gold at an average grade of 10.4g/t, a recovery rate of 90% and all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $770-830 per ounce. The mine currently hosts probable reserves of 5.41 million ounces of gold at 8.1 grams per tonne.
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Wheaton Precious Buys the Gold from Capstone's Santo Domingo, Chile
Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX: WPM) has entered into a streaming agreement with Capstone Mining (TSX: CM) over the Santo Domingo project located in Chile's Atacama desert.
The company will purchase 100% of the payable gold production until 285 thousand ounces have been delivered, dropping to 67% of payable gold production for the life of the mine. Wheaton will pay Capstone a total upfront cash consideration of $290 million.
Gold production is forecast to average 35 to 40 koz per year for the first five full years of production and 25 to 30 koz for the first ten full years.
A February 2020 technical report outlined an 18-year operation with a life of mine average throughput of 60,500 t/d for annual output of 137 Mlb (62,142 t) of copper, 4.2 Mt of iron ore and 17,000 oz of gold at the project.
Development capital for this study came in at $1.51 billion. Capstone expects major construction to commence in late 2021 with the first full year of production forecast for 2024.
Santo Domingo is owned 70% by Capstone and 30% by Korea Resources Corp.
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Solaris Drills 922 metres of 0.94% CuEq at Warintza, Ecuador
Solaris Resources (TSX-V: SLS) has released three additional holes from its Warintza copper project in Ecuador. The drill results come from the Warintza Central zone, revealing long intervals of high-grade mineralization.
- SLS-14 returned 922m of 0.94% CuEq (0.79% Cu, 0.03% Mo, and 0.08 g/t Au) from surface, including 850m of 0.98% CuEq (0.82% Cu, 0.03% Mo, and 0.08 g/t Au)
- SLS-15 returned 1,002m of 0.60% CuEq (0.52% Cu, 0.01% Mo, and 0.04 g/t Au) from surface, including 694m of 0.67% CuEq (0.57% Cu, 0.02% Mo, and 0.05 g/t Au) within a broader interval of 1,229m of 0.56% CuEq (0.48% Cu, 0.01% Mo, and 0.04 g/t Au)
- SLS-16 returned 958m of 0.77% CuEq (0.63% Cu, 0.03% Mo, and 0.06 g/t Au) from near surface, including 486m of 0.84% CuEq (0.70% Cu, 0.03% Mo, and 0.07 g/t Au)
Major shareholders in Solaris include Equinox, which holds a 27% stake in the company; Richard Warke, Solaris’ chairman and founder of the Augusta Group, holds a 26% stake; the Lundin Group holds 5%; and management holds 5%.
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10 Largest Nickel Projects Under Development
MINING.COM and MiningIntelligence compiled the 10 largest projects under development around the world and ranked them based on contained nickel resources in the measured and indicated categories.
The world’s top nickel suppliers are Indonesia, the Philippines and Russia, six out of this year’s top ten ranked nickel projects are in North America, and the first is a seafloor deposit in the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean, between Hawaii and Mexico.
Here is the list by contained metal tonnes of nickel:
NORI Clarion-Clipperton: 4,830,797 t
Dumont: 4,392,726 0.26 t
Decar: 2,434,965 t
Turnagain: 2,61,763 t
Twin Metals Minnesota: 2,318,371 t
Snagaji: 2,099,945 t
Goongarrie: 1,75,640 t
Crawford: 1,685,210 t
Mesaba: 1,602,599 t
Central Musgrave/Wingelina: 1,559,670 t
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