TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Toronto-based Romarco Minerals has entered into a tolling agreement between its subsidiary Haile Gold Mine, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SCDHEC) and the Sierra Club, which would extend the time for filing an appeal to the South Carolina Mining Counsel by four days for the Sierra Club only.
The tolling agreement would expire at close of business on Friday.
Romarco stated that the agreement was reached owing to the holiday season to allow Haile and the Sierra Club to determine whether the Sierra Club's claims could be resolved without further appeals. The SCDHEC had agreed to allow Haile and Sierra Club time to conduct discussions.
After recently receiving all necessary permits to start construction of its flagship $333-million Haile gold project, in South Carolina, Canadian project developer Romarco last month reported that it had updated the project’s economics, resulting in a 72% boost to the project’s after-tax net present value (NPV).
Romarco said the updated report was based on the company’s previous February 2011 feasibility study, but given the passage of time from the original economic analysis, the company undertook confirmatory work on the project economics.
Using a 5% discount rate, the after-tax NPV rose from $191-million to $329-million and the internal rate of return increased from 15.7% to 20.1%.