Canada NewsWire
VANCOUVER, BC , July 28, 2021 /CNW/ - Luminex Resources Corp. (TSXV: LR) (OTCQX: LUMIF) (the "Company" or "Luminex") is pleased to announce it has received positive results from the Preliminary Economic Assessment (the "PEA"), prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), on a portion of its 90%-owned Condor Project ("Condor" or the "Project") comprised of the Los Cuyes, Soledad, Enma and Camp deposits (collectively, "Condor North"), located in Zamora Chinchipe province. The work that was completed as the basis for the PEA was managed by MTB Enterprises Inc. ("MTB") and represents the first economic study on Condor North.
Marshall Koval , CEO, commented: "This next step for Condor North validates the work that has been completed since the discovery of the Camp deposit. The PEA demonstrates that Condor North's multiple deposits could support a large-scale, profitable mining operation in one of the best mining districts in Ecuador . Our team believes that future drilling at Nayumbi and Prometedor will continue to add value to the Condor Project."
Preliminary Economic Assessment Summary
The PEA was initiated in early 2021 and was produced by a team of independent consultants that possess extensive expertise in their respective fields. Further details on the contributors can be found in the Qualified Persons section of this news release.
All amounts are in United States dollars unless otherwise specified. Base case economics were calculated using a gold price of $1,600 per ounce and a silver price of $21.00 per ounce. All figures are displayed on a 100% ownership basis. The effective date of the PEA is July 28, 2021 and a technical report for the Project including the PEA will be filed on the System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval within 45 days of this news release.
The PEA's highlights include the following estimates:
- Life of mine ("LOM") average annual payable production of 187 koz gold and 758 koz silver
- 12-year mine life with a 25 ktpd processing operation
- After-tax Net Present Value ("NPV") (5%) and Internal Rate of Return ("IRR") of $387 million and 16.0%
- After-tax NPV (5%) and IRR of $562 million and 20.3% using $1,760 per ounce gold (see Table 1)
- Average cash operating costs of $748 /oz and all-in sustaining costs of $839 /oz, net of by-product credits
- LOM processed grades of 0.72 grams per tonne ("g/t") gold and 5.9 g/t silver
- LOM revenue mix of 95% gold and 5% silver
- Initial capital costs including working capital of $607 million , not including refundable value added tax
The PEA is preliminary in nature and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There is no certainty that the PEA will be realized.
Table 1: Summary of Economic Results by Gold and Silver Price
|
Percentage of Base Case Prices |
90% |
100% |
110% |
|
Gold Price (per oz) |
$1,440 |
$1,600 |
$1,760 |
|
Silver Price (per oz) |
$18.90 |
$21.00 |
$23.10 |
|
Pre-Tax NPV (5%) ($M) |
$375 |
$640 |
$904 |
|
Pre-Tax IRR |
14.9% |
21.0% |
26.6% |
|
Post-Tax NPV (5%) ($M) |
$211 |
$387 |
$562 |
|
Post-Tax IRR |
11.4% |
16.0% |
20.3% |
Table 2: Capital Expenditure Estimate Summary
|
Initial Capital ($M) |
|
|
Process Plant & Infrastructure |
$206 |
|
Equipment (Mining and Ancillary Facilities) |
$122 |
|
Pre-production Mine Development |
$66 |
|
Subaqueous Tailings Storage Facility |
$24 |
|
Other Direct and Indirect Costs |
$95 |
|
Sub Total |
$513 |
|
Contingency (13.4% Allowance) (1) |
$69 |
|
Freight, Duties and Taxes |
$25 |
|
Refundable Value Added Tax |
$50 |
|
Total Initial Capital |
$657 |
|
|
|
|
Sustaining Capital and Closure Costs ($M) |
|
|
Life of Mine Sustaining Capital |
$175 |
|
Average Annual Life of Mine Sustaining Capital |
$15 |
|
Net Closure Costs (Closure, Severance and Salvage) |
$30 |
|
|
|
|
Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding. |
|
|
(1) |
The contingency allowance was developed on an area-by-area cost centre assessment of estimate confidence. The assessment considered
|
Table 3: Summary of Operating Cost Estimates and Cash Costs
|
Average Operating Costs |
Years 1-5 |
Years 6-12 |
LOM |
|
Mining Costs per Tonne Mined – Underground |
$32.25 |
$30.33 |
$31.69 |
|
Mining Costs per Tonne Mined – Open Pit |
$1.59 |
$1.47 |
$1.53 |
|
Per Tonne Milled |
|
|
|
|
Mining Costs |
$8.52 |
$4.25 |
$6.00 |
|
Processing and Tailings Management Costs |
$8.38 |
$8.30 |
$8.33 |
|
General, Administrative, Environmental and Site Costs |
$1.91 |
$1.47 |
$1.65 |
|
Total Operating Costs |
$18.81 |
$14.02 |
$15.98 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Average Net Cash Costs per Ounce (1) |
Years 1-5 |
Years 6-12 |
LOM |
|
Operating Costs |
$744 |
$780 |
$763 |
|
Refining and Transport |
$18 |
$23 |
$20 |
|
By-Product Credits |
($70) |
($98) |
($85) |
|
Government 3% NSR Royalty |
$48 |
$50 |
$50 |
|
C1 Cash Cost Net of By-products |
$741 |
$755 |
$748 |
|
Sustaining Capital and Net Closure Costs |
$100 |
$80 |
$91 |
|
All-in Sustaining Net Cash Cost |
$841 |
$835 |
$839 |
|
|
|
Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding. By-products calculated using $21.00 per ounce silver. |
|
Net Cash Cost: (Operating costs including transportation and refining costs + Royalties – By-product credits) / Payable Au oz. |
|
All-in Sustaining Cash Cost: Adds sustaining capital and closure costs to the Net Cash Cost. |
Table 4: Summary of the Mineral Resource Estimates for All Deposits Located at the Condor Project
|
Deposit |
Tonnes
|
Average Grade |
Contained Metal |
||||
|
AuEq
|
Au
|
Ag
|
AuEq
|
Au
|
Ag
|
||
|
Indicated |
|||||||
|
Santa Barbara |
39.8 |
0.83 |
0.67 |
0.8 |
1,057 |
859 |
1.0 |
|
Los Cuyes |
50.8 |
0.71 |
0.65 |
5.2 |
1,161 |
1,059 |
8.5 |
|
Soledad |
19.4 |
0.68 |
0.63 |
4.8 |
426 |
390 |
3.0 |
|
Enma |
0.66 |
0.78 |
0.64 |
11.6 |
17 |
14 |
0.25 |
|
Total |
110.7 |
0.75 |
0.65 |
3.6 |
2,660 |
2,321 |
12.8 |
|
Inferred |
|||||||
|
Santa Barbara |
166.7 |
0.66 |
0.52 |
0.9 |
3,534 |
2,768 |
4.9 |
|
Los Cuyes |
36.4 |
0.65 |
0.59 |
5.3 |
761 |
687 |
6.2 |
|
Soledad |
15.1 |
0.50 |
0.46 |
3.4 |
245 |
225 |
1.7 |
|
Enma |
0.07 |
0.93 |
0.81 |
9.7 |
2 |
2 |
0.02 |
|
Camp |
6.0 |
3.45 |
3.28 |
27.8 |
663 |
631 |
5.3 |
|
Total |
224.3 |
0.72 |
0.60 |
2.5 |
5,205 |
4,313 |
18.1 |
|
Mineral Resource Estimate Notes: |
|
(1) The mineral resource estimate has an effective date of July 28, 2021. (2) There are no known issues related to legal, political, or environmental issues that could materially affect the potential development of the mineral resources. (3) The quantity and grade of reported inferred mineral resources is based on limited geological evidence and sampling which is sufficient to imply but not verify geological and grade or quality continuity and there has been insufficient exploration to define these inferred mineral resources as an indicated or measured mineral resource. It is reasonable to expect that the majority of inferred mineral resources could be upgraded to indicated or measured mineral resources with continued exploration. (4) Mineral resources exhibit reasonable prospects of eventual economic extraction using open pit extraction methods at Santa Barbara, Los Cuyes, Soledad and Enma and using underground mining methods at the Camp deposit. At Los Cuyes and Soledad, the base case cut-off grade is 0.30 g/t AuEq and at Santa Barbara and Enma, the base case cut-off grade is 0.37 g/t AuEq. At Los Cuyes, Soledad, and Enma, AuEq = Au g/t + (Ag g/t × 0.012), and at Santa Barbara, AuEq = Au g/t + (Ag g/t × 0.012) + (Cu% x 1.371). The base case cut-off grade for the Camp resource is 1.33g/t AuEq, where AuEq = Au g/t + Ag g/t * 0.0062. (5) Totals may not add up due to rounding. Base metal values are not displayed: copper for Santa Barbara and copper, lead and zinc for Camp. Base metal values are excluded from Camp AuEq. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. |
Mining and Processing Facility
Condor North consists of three adjacent open pit mine areas and one underground mine. The open pit mine areas are named "Los Cuyes", "Soledad", and "Enma"; and the underground mine is "Camp."
The open pits will be mined with conventional hard rock mining methods. The terrain is steep at the three open pit deposits and has jungle vegetation with thin layers of saprolite rock. The initial development of each working area will be mined using a set of small drills, loaders, and trucks. Once a large working area is opened up, a primary production fleet consisting of larger drills, shovels/loaders and trucks will be deployed at the open pits. The Los Cuyes deposit consists of three phases, Soledad consists of two phases, and Enma is one phase. Los Cuyes will have the tallest highwall at approximately 700 metres.
The Camp deposit consists of a series of steeply dipping, sub-parallel mineralized structures that will be mined using mechanized underground methods. The mining methods used will be longitudinal and transverse blasthole stoping with waste rock backfill, cemented where required. Access to the deposit will be through portals at the 1,200-metre elevation, then through a series of ramps to gain access to working levels on 20-metre vertical intervals ranging from elevations of 600 to 1,300 metres.
The mining rate from Camp will ramp up to 2,500 tpd (0.9 Mtpy) by the second year of the mine life and the deposit will operate until year eight. The lower grade open pit mill feed from Los Cuyes, Soledad and Enma will be blended with the higher-grade underground Camp mill feed, resulting in a combined mill feed of 25,000 tpd (9.1 Mtpy). Surface mining will move about 29,500 tpd (10.8 Mtpy) in preproduction and eventually ramp to a nominal mine production movement rate of 82,200 tpd (30 Mtpy). The combined open pit strip ratio is 1.94:1.00. All material that is not directly trucked to the mill will be placed in a low-grade storage, saprolite storage, or one of two waste rock storage facilities.
The proposed processing facility for Condor North is a conventional gravity concentration and carbon-in-leach ("CIL") circuit. It has been designed to treat 25,000 tpd (8.92 Mtpa average) of mineralized material over the 12-year mining life.
The process flowsheet begins with a primary crusher located near the open pits and an overland conveyor to the plant. The plant consists of a semi-autonomous grinding ("SAG") mill, pebble crusher and ball mill for grinding, gravity concentrators and an intensive cyanide leaching circuit, a CIL circuit for gravity tailings, a carbon treatment system, electrowinning cells and a detoxification circuit for CIL tailing. Detoxified tailings will be pumped to a wet tailings storage facility with process water recycled to the plant. The plant will produce gold and silver doré which will be shipped off-site for final refining.
Table 5: Mined and Processed Material Summary
|
Processed Material |
Tonnes (kt) |
Grade |
Contained Metal |
Contained Metal % Total |
|||
|
Au |
Ag |
Au |
Ag |
Au |
Ag |
||
|
(g/t) |
(g/t) |
(koz) |
(koz) |
% |
% |
||
|
Camp (Underground) |
6,293 |
2.52 |
20.78 |
510 |
4,204 |
20.5% |
20.6% |
|
Los Cuyes (Open Pit) |
72,104 |
0.62 |
5.24 |
1,431 |
12,149 |
57.5% |
59.4% |
|
Soledad (Open Pit) |
27,467 |
0.60 |
4.26 |
529 |
3,765 |
21.3% |
18.4% |
|
Enma (Open Pit) |
1,135 |
0.56 |
9.06 |
20 |
331 |
0.8% |
1.6% |
|
Total Processed |
106,999 |
0.724 |
5.94 |
2,490 |
20,449 |
100.0% |
100.0% |
|
Waste Material (Open Pits) |
×
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