Name of the Project
Magino gold project.

Location
The project is located 40 km north-east of Wawa, Ontario, Canada.

Project Owner/s
Canada-based mining company Argonaut Gold.

Project Description
Magino is a past-producing underground gold mine.

The project has total proven and probable reserves of 59-million ounces grading 1.13 g/t gold. A feasibility study on the project has determined that the Magino project is a strategic, long-life asset.

Envisaged is a 115 700 oz/y gold operation with a 17-year mine life.

Openpit mining operations will use a fleet comprising 16 m3 front shovels, a 13 m3 front-end loader and 140 t haul trucks. 

This fleet will be supplemented by drills, graders, and track and rubber-tyre dozers.

A 10 000 t/d processing facility has been selected for the feasibility study, compared with the 30 000 t/d plant presented in the January 2016 prefeasibility study.

The adopted flowsheet includes primary crushing, single-stage semiautogenous grinding mill, a gravity recovery circuit, a cyanide leach and carbon-in-pulp gold adsorption circuit with cyanide recovery and detoxification, as well as thickening, before tailings are discharged to a tailings facility.

Potential Job Creation
During construction, about 500 to 600 jobs will be created and about 350 employees will be engaged as part of ongoing operations.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has a pretax net present value, at a 5% discount rate, of $408-million and an internal rate of return of 22.6%, with a payback of 3.8 years.

Capital Expenditure
Total capital costs have been estimated at up to $510-millon.

Planned Start/End Date
The project will take two years to complete, with construction to get under way in January 2021, with first gold expected in early 2023.

Latest Developments
Argonaut Gold has executed a fixed-bid engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning (EPCC) contract with Ausenco Engineering Canada for the Magino processing facility and other parts of the mining project.

The Magino project is at an advanced exploration stage. Construction on the project can start as soon as the project closure plan is filed with the Ontario province, which is expected before the end of January.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Ausenco Engineering Canada (EPCC).

Contact Details for Project Information
Argonaut Gold, tel +1 775 284 4422, fax +1 775 284 4426 or email info@argonautgold.com.