PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A review into the definitive feasibility study (DFS) for the Borborema gold project, in Brazil, has reduced the project’s expected costs from the original $99.3-million to $90.7-million.
ASX-listed Big River Gold on Thursday noted that the review had resulted in changes to the process design, which further de-risked the operation and provided substantial improvements to the project economics.
The two-million-tonne-a-year operation is expected to have an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $713/oz over the 10.2-year mine life of Stage 1, which will produce some 729 374 oz of gold.
This was compared with a previously estimated AISC of $839/oz over the mine life.
C1 cash costs have also declined from the $642/oz estimated in the original DFS to $534/oz, while the project’s net present value has increased from $218-million to $342-million pre tax, and its internal rate of return from 43.6% to 64.7%.
The updated DFS was based on a flat gold price of $1 550/oz, compared with the DFS assumption of $1 400/oz.
Big River has previously stated that project construction is expected to last 23 months subject to the conclusion of financing. The company is looking to source financing through a combination of equity and debt instruments from existing shareholders, new equity investment and debt providers in both Australia and overseas.