The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Pretium Resources Inc. is on pace to fire up operations at its bonanza grade Brucejack gold project in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Upon reaching commercial production, the high-grade underground operation at Valley of the Kings is expected to produce 7.27 million ounces of gold over an 18-year mine life, or roughly 404,000 oz. of the precious metal annually, according to a feasibility study completed in 2014.
Aiming to upgrade the confidence of resources to be mined during the first three years of operation, the company drilled 367 holes (63,740 meters) in the Valley of the Kings deposit at Brucejack in 2015 and 2016. As a result of this infill drilling, the Valley of the Kings measured resource increased by 58 percent to 3.5 million metric tons averaging 17 grams per metric ton (1.9 million ounces) gold, according to an updated resource published in July.
Overall, the measured and indicated mineral resources in the Valley of the Kings now totals 16.4 million metric tons grading 17.2 g/t (9.1 million oz.) gold, a slight increase from the 15.3 million metric tons averaging 17.6 g/t (8.7 million oz.) that formed the basis for the feasibility study.
In 2015, Pretium completed a US$540 million construction financing package with Orion and Blackstone. With this financing, along with equity offering of US$146.2 million equity offering this year, development of Brucejack is fully funded.
While on the cusp of graduating from explorer to producer, Pretium has not lost sight of its roots. In 2015, the company completed roughly 20,000 meters of drilling at grassroots porphyry/epithermal-style targets east of the nearly operational mine. Flow Dome, a zone about 1,000 meters east of the Valley of the Kings, and Kitchenview, a zone further to the northeast were among the targets tested. This year, the company has two drills following up on some promising areas across the wider Brucejack property.
In 2015, Pretium optioned the King Tut, Tuck and Silver Crown West properties from Teuton Resources Corp. for C$1.8 million in cash payable over four years.
Teuton will retain a 2 percent net smelter return royalty in the properties with no buyback.
These gold-silver prospective properties lie south of Brucejack.
Pretium also owns Snowfield, a bulk tonnage project north of Brucejack that hosts 1.37 billion metric tons of measured and indicated resources containing 25.9 million oz. of gold, 75.8 million oz. of silver, 2.98 billion pounds of copper, 258.3 million lbs. of molybdenum and 22.5 million oz. of rhenium. The project also has considerable resources reporting to the inferred category.
Pretium maintains a confidentiality and cooperation agreement with Seabridge Gold, whose KSM project shares a common boundary with Snowfield.
-SHANE LASLEY
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