Lundin cuts Fruta del Norte operating costs, confirms schedule
The Fruta del Norte gold mine that Lundin Gold is building in Ecuador is progressing on schedule, with first mine production planned in the second quarter of next year, followed by first gold output in the fourth quarter.
Construction of the 340 000 oz/y gold mine in the Cordillera del Condor region is about 27% complete and about 63% of the planned capital expenditure has been committed, president and CEO Ron Hochstein reported on Wednesday.
Following an update of the project estimate he delivered some good news about Fruta del Norte’s cost estimates and project economics, helped by improvements in the mine plan, the refinement of processing costs and negotiation of smelting contracts for the concentrate.
The estimated all-in sustaining cost reduced from $609/oz to $583/oz and the estimated operating cost a tonne decreased from $111.84 to $103.65.
Production, meanwhile, increased by 73 000 oz to 4.6-million ounces over the 15-year mine life.
Project economics also improved, using the same gold and silver price assumptions of the technical report. The capital payback period has been lowered to 3.5 years, from four years, and the internal rate of return has improved from 16.3% to 17.5%, while the net present value improved from $717-million to $786-million.
The capital cost of the project increased by 1.2% to $692-million.
Lundin in July arranged a $350-million debt facility from a group of lenders, including ING Capital, Societe Generale, Caterpillar Financial Services (Cat Financial), the Bank of Nova Scotia, Natixis, KfW IPEX-Bank and Bank of Montreal, to fund the mine.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation