Photo by: Alacer Gold
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Gold producer Alacer Gold on Sunday reported that the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation had approved the environmental-impact assessment (EIA) for the Çöpler sulphide project.
The approval was the next step in the expansion of the gold mine to increase its life-of-mine (LoM) output to 3.2-million ounces of gold over the next 20 years.
“The approval of the EIA represents a significant positive milestone for Çöpler and the sulphide project and demonstrates the ongoing support from the Turkish [government] for Çöpler and the project,” Alacer CEO Rod Antal said in a statement.
Alacer stressed that the EIA approval was further evidence that the sulphide project was fully on track and that the company could now start the process of securing the necessary land use permits.
In parallel with the land use permitting process, Alacer would continue to advance basic engineering and de-risking efforts.
“With no debt and a growing cash balance of $320-million, Çöpler's high-margin production provides the platform to deliver on our strategy of becoming a sustainable mining operation with a focus on Turkey,” Antal said.
Alacer had in June reported buoyant results for a definitive feasibility study (DFS) on the addition of a sulphide ore-processing circuit at its Çöpler mine, in Erzincan province. The company, which was currently producing gold from oxide ore at the mine, intended to process sulphide ore through whole-ore pressure oxidation (POX).
The DFS estimated that the sulphide project would generate attractive financial returns. Based on capital expenditure of $660-million, including a $69-million contingency and a gold price of $1 300/oz, the after-tax unleveraged internal rate of return was 20% and the net present value (NPV) $627-million, which would result in increased cash flows as opposed to the oxide-only mine.
Çöpler now had an after-tax, unleveraged NPV of $926-million on the combined heap leach and POX production.
The sulphide project would pay itself back within 1.7 years from the start of sulphide production and generate $1.6-billion in free cash flow over the LoM.