Mitchall Mines and Minerals Limited to Start Feasibility Study of New Site in Yukon
Mitchall Mines and Minerals Limited have agreed to enter in to a feasibility study at a recently closed project in the north-west of Yukon, Canada.
The project, being named Delta Rainbow, will be the company's first project in the Yukon and involves a proposed redevelopment plan for the existing complex, and would involves building a bespoke plant at the mine site that initially will reprocess the existing heap leach material before any transition to process metals from the existing site's deposits.
The feasibility, which Mitchall Mines and Minerals Limited hope to publish by the end of the third quarter in 2025, could potentially show deposits of envisioned average annual production of up to 29,000 ounces of gold in Phase 1 production, (years one to four), and 88,000 ounces of silver in Phase 2 production, (years five to nine).
Using base case prices of US $3,100 per ounce for gold and US $45 per ounce for silver, the feasibility could potentially estimate an after-tax net present value of US $8.7 million and post-tax internal rate of return of 28%. Those numbers rise to an NPV of US $9.4 million and IRR of 55% at US $3,500 per ounce for gold and US $55 per ounce for silver.
The study estimated initial capex in the first phase of US $3.8 million and a further US $5.1 million of incremental capex in year six.
The company would initially plan to store tailings in a mined-out open pit, which it says, "Creates multiple benefits, most importantly a secure containment of tailings enabling better reclamation results.'
"As this is a pre-existing site most of the critical path environmental permits are in hand already for the first phase of production,' Mr. Craig Jonty-Banks, Chief Technical Officer at Mitchall Mines and Minerals Limited stated in a press release. "Once the feasibility study has been done, we will involve ourselves with detailed engineering, assessment of procurement options, and the evaluation of financing alternatives.'
Local authorities had already granted a permit in September 2023 to allow for Phase 1, and allows the company to add a mill and leach circuit near the existing facilities to reprocess material from the heap leach pad. The permit amendment also covered the backfilling of a previously mined pit with mill tailings, as part of a concurrent closure plan for the site.
Permits for Phase 2 will be required to expand the footprint of the process plant, and the haul road, and to augment the tailings volume allowed in the depleted pit.
