(Kitco News) - On Tuesday, Fortune Bay (TSXV: FOR) announced positive results from the independent preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for its 100% owned Goldfields project located near Uranium City, Saskatchewan.
The company said that on a pre-tax basis (assuming US$1,650 per ounce based on long-term consensus pricing), the project's NPV5% is C$401 million, the IRR is 45.5% and the payback period is 1.4 years. On an after-tax basis, the NPV5% is C$285 million, the IRR is 35.2% and the payback period is 1.7 years.
Projected gold production is 835,000 ounces over the 8.3 year LOM. Gold production averages 101,000 ounces per year, with an average of 122,000 ounces per year in the first four years. Mine planning is based on conventional open pit methods suited for the project location and local site requirements.
The current total gold resource for Box and Athona deposits stands at 979,900 ounces of gold in the indicated category (23.2 million tonnes at an average grade of 1.31 g/t gold) and 210,800 ounces of gold in the inferred category (7.1 million tonnes at an average grade of 0.92 g/t gold).
However, the company noted that the project has exploration potential which could enable longer mine life beyond 8.3 years or increased annual production volumes, adding that mineralization at Box and Athona remains open and numerous other gold prospects on the property require more detailed re-evaluation.
CEO Dale Verran commented, "Goldfields shows potential to become a highly profitable gold mine. Goldfields has now established itself as a leading gold development project in Saskatchewan, which is significant given it is the top-ranked mining jurisdiction in Canada and ranked number two globally. The project continues to present numerous opportunities, including exploration potential, and additional mining and processing opportunities to be further investigated during a pre-feasibility stage.”
Fortune Bay is an exploration and development company with 100% ownership in two advanced gold exploration projects in Canada, Saskatchewan (Goldfields project) and Mexico, Chiapas (Ixhuatán project), both with exploration and development potential.
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