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By A.J. Roan
Mining News 

Feasibility study affirms Casino potential

Western Copper and Gold showcase robust world-class mine North of 60 Mining News – July 1, 2022

 

Last updated 7/7/2022 at 2:38pm

Skagway, Alaska port nearest export hub for the world-class Casino project.

Wikimedia Commons

The Skagway port, approximately 560 kilometers (348 miles) from Western Copper and Gold's Casino project in the Yukon. It will serve as the nearest export hub.

Western Copper and Gold Corp. June 28 announced the release of an updated feasibility study for its world-class Casino copper-gold-silver-molybdenum project in Yukon, Canada.

Superseding all previous studies and incorporating an updated mineral resource and mineral reserve with an effective date of April 29, the study considers the Casino project being constructed as an open pit mine, with a concentrator processing 120,000 metric tons per day to recover copper, gold, silver, and molybdenum, as well as a 25,000 tpd oxide heap leach facility to recover copper, gold, and silver.

"The results from the feasibility study confirm the project's robustness and ability to withstand inflationary pressures," said Western Copper and Gold President and CEO Paul West-Sells. "This study reaffirms Casino as one of the very few long-life copper-gold projects with robust economics in a top mining district, the Yukon."

Historically, two prefeasibility studies and a feasibility study on developing a mine at Casino have been published. Western Copper and Gold, however, has substantially expanded the deposit and last year published a preliminary economic assessment outlining a robust mine capable of producing an average of 178 million pounds of copper, 231,000 ounces of gold, 1.36 million oz of silver, and 16.6 million lb of molybdenum annually over an initial 25-year mine life.

What contributed to a significant difference from the previous PEA, however, was that gold recovery from heap leach could be increased from 70% to 80% by crushing the ore more before going to the pad. This change, along with minor changes in grades and tonnage reporting to the heap leach pad, resulted in a roughly 20% greater gold prediction with additional capital through the heap leach circuit.

In addition to those changes, minor changes to the grades in tonnage treated through the mill resulted in 4.4% greater metal production, similarly compared to the PEA.

Casino now hosts 2.49 billion metric tons of measured and indicated resource averaging 0.14% (7.64 billion lb) copper, 0.17 grams per metric ton (14.8 million oz) gold, 1.4 g/t (103.9 million oz) silver, and 0.016 (791 million lb) molybdenum; with an additional 1.43 billion metric tons of inferred resource averaging 0.1% (3.08 billion lb) copper, 0.14 g/t (6.3 million oz) gold, 1.2 g/t (52.3 million oz) silver, and 0.009% (51 million lb) molybdenum.

With the updated mineral resource and the newly announced feasibility study, the after-tax present value (at 5% discount) of the proposed Casino mine is C$4.06 billion (US$3.15 billion). Likewise, the after-tax internal rate of return is 18.1%.

A map showing the breadth of Yukon and nearby mining projects from Casino.

Western Copper and Gold Corp.

A map showing the distance between the Casino project and Skagway, Alaska, roughly 560 kilometers (348 miles).

In addition to the mineral resource update and feasibility study, Western Copper and Gold released a new mineral reserve estimate based on the updated open pit mine plan and mine production schedule detailed in the feasibility study. Thus, Casino reports roughly 1.22 billion metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 0.19% (5.08 billion lb) copper, 0.22 g/t (8.5 million oz) gold, 1.7 g/t (64.9 million oz) silver, and 0.021% (572 million lb) molybdenum.

"We are continuing to collaborate with our strategic investor, Rio Tinto, and continue to engage with First Nations and community stakeholders to advance this project toward the submission of Casino's environmental and socio-economic statement in mid-2023," said West-Sells.

 

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