Name of the Project
Marathon palladium and copper project.

Location
Marathon, in north-western Ontario, Canada.

Project Owner/s
The project is a joint venture (JV) between Generation Mining (Gen Mining), which owns an 80% interest in the project, with the remaining interest owned by Sibanye-Stillwater.

Project Description
A feasibility study completed on Marathon in March 2021 has confirmed it is a substantial mining project that is expected to provide a very robust return on investment.

Mineral reserves are estimated at 117.7-million tonnes grading 0.62 g/t 0.21% copper, 0.07 g/t gold and 0.2 g/t platinum. The project has a mineral and indicated resources of 244.87-million tonnes grading 0.53 g/t palladium, 0.20% copper, 0.07 g/t gold and 0.18 g/t platinum. Inferred resources are estimated at 33.85-million tonnes grading 0.40 g/t palladium, 0.22% copper, 0.05 g/t gold and 0.1 g/t platinum.

The proposed mine will use conventional openpit, truck-and-shovel operating methods. Three pits will be mined over the 13-year mine life, with an additional two years of preproduction mining to be undertaken where waste material will be mined for construction and ore stockpiled ahead of processing plant commissioning.

The mining equipment fleet will be owner-operated and will include the outsourcing of certain support activities such as explosives manufacturing and blasting.

Mining production at peak capacity is estimated at 40-million tonnes a year, or 110 000 t/d. Total material moved over the life of the operation is 447-million tonnes, with 118-million tonnes of ore mined.

The openpit operation includes a waste-rock dump east of the openpit, as well as an ore stockpile, with a peak capacity of about 12-million tonnes, to the west of the pits, close to the crusher location.

The project process design is based on the optimised flowsheet and is designed to operate at 9.2-million tonnes a year, or 25 200 t/d, and will produce a copper/palladium concentrate for marketing.

The process plant flowsheet includes a conventional comminution circuit comprising a semi-autogenous grinding mill and pebble crusher followed by a ball mill. The flotation portion of the process plant includes rougher flotation, concentrate regrind and three stages of cleaning.

After the initial construction phase, the palladium-scavenger or platinum group metals (PGM) scavenger circuit will be installed. Included in construction is cyclone classification of rougher tailings to reject the fine fraction and submit coarser fractions for additional regrinding and PGM scavenger flotation. The PGM-scavenger circuit will add incremental recovery improvement to achieve the recoveries established in the 2020 metallurgical testing programmes.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
In the base case, the project has a pretax net present value, at a 6% discount rate, of $1.64-billion and an internal rate of return of 38.6%, with a payback of 1.9 years.

Capital Expenditure
The project is estimated at $665-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The initial capital cost considers a site-based construction timeframe of about 18 months, followed by commissioning and ramp-up to commercial production over an estimated nine months. The company expects to begin construction in 2022 subject to permitting approvals and financing arrangements.

Latest Developments
Generation Mining has announced board approval for the feasibility study for the Marathon project.

The company obtained shareholder approval in terms of the Marathon joint venture (JV) agreement it signed in July with Stillwater Canada.

The management committee of the JV comprises four members – two representatives from each of Gen Mining and Sibanye.

In terms of an extension agreement entered into between the companies on April 30, the management committee has temporarily deferred consideration of a commercial production decision on the project until July 22.

As a result, Sibanye will have until the commercial production decision date to elect to exercise its rights under the JV to increase its ownership interest in the Marathon project to up to 51%.

Generation Mining will continue with exploration drilling along with the development of the Marathon project, including progressing an environmental-impact assessment, community relations and detailed engineering work.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
G Mining Services, with contributions from Ausenco Engineering Canada, Haggarty Technical Services, Knight Piésold, WESC Inc. and P&E Mining Consultants (feasibility study).

Contact Details for Project Information
Gen Mining president and CEO Jamie Levy, tel +1416567 2440 or email jlevy@genmining.com.