The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Financing ensures company can order supplies for future mine North of 60 Mining News – March 19, 2021
A roughly 170-kilometer- (105 miles) long ice road provides more efficient delivery of the equipment, fuel and supplies needed to support predevelopment activities at the Goose Mine site on Sabina's Back River gold project in Nunavut.
Recently upgraded and expanded by Sabina, the Bathurst Inlet port provides ample room to store equipment and supplies that will be delivered to Back River via the winter ice road.
Sabina Gold & Silver Corp. March 16 announced that it has raised C$35.1 million to fund the advancement of its Back River gold project in Nunavut and expects to add another C$4.1 million to its coffers by the end of the month.
A 2015 feasibility study detailed plans for mining four deposits at Back River – Goose, Llama, Umwelt, and Umwelt Underground – to feed a 3,000-metric-ton-per-day mill forecast to produce an average of roughly 200,000 oz of gold per year over an 11.8-year mine-life.
Since that time, however, Sabina has significantly expanded the resource.
According to a calculation completed earlier this year, Back River hosts 33.45 million metric tons of measured and indicated resources averaging 5.88 grams per metric ton (6.32 million oz) gold; and 13.79 million metric tons of inferred resource averaging 6.44 g/t (2.86 million oz) gold.
Much of the expanded measured and indicated resources are expected to be upgraded to reserves upon completion of an updated feasibility study for the Goose Mine.
The company says the recent financing is vital to ensuring it can commit to ordering long lead time items in time for this year's sealift to the arctic port that serves the gold mine development project.
"We are pleased to have completed this financing which enables us to secure certain long-lead items to maintain our execution schedule and targeted first gold production in Q1 (first quarter), 2024," said Sabina Gold President and CEO Bruce McLeod.
The list of items Sabina plans to order for delivery this summer include:
• Phase-one camp accommodation with 250 beds.
• Steel and cladding for the mill, truck shop, and crusher buildings.
• Primary and secondary crushers.
• Phase-one of the open-pit mining fleet.
• Winter ice road and ancillary construction equipment.
"With these funds in hand, we are now working to finalize budgets and work programs for 2021. A crew has been mobilized and opened camp and has begun the resupply of fuel and other consumables required for the year," said McLeod. "While we are still operating under rigid COVID protocols, we anticipate camp being ready for activities in the coming weeks. We also continue to re-fresh the debt process with various parties with a view to securing total project financing and making a production decision this year."
The initial C$35.1 million raised this year by Sabina was through a bought deal financing that involved the sale of 18 million shares to institutional investors at C$1.95 per share.
The company expects to raise the added C$4.1 million through the issuance of 2.12 million shares to Zhaojin International Mining Co., which has the right to maintain its 9.9% holdings in Sabina, at C$1.95 per share. The Zhaojin private placement is expected to close on March 22.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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