Copper/gold developer SolGold traded 22% higher on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, following news that the Constitutional Court in Ecuador had dismissed a petition for a mining referendum that would have affected its Cascabel project.
It is understood that the court rejected the petition on the basis of technicalities.
“With this decision the petition has been closed and the case closed,” said SolGold in a media statement on Friday.
Under Ecuadorian law individuals are legally allowed to put forward petitions to the Constitutional Court for the inclusion of specific questions in a future vote.
SolGold had previously stressed that it did not believe the Cascabel tenure was at risk and that it had the “full and objective support” of the Ecuadorian government.
The preliminary economic assessment (PEA) for the Alpala deposit in the Cascabel project indicated that the government and people of Ecuador stood to benefit from $17-billion in taxes, royalties and profit shares.
The PEA for the Alpala copper/gold/silver deposit delivered “outstanding financial metrics”, with a start-up capital expenditure of $2.4-billion to $2.8-billion, a net present value range of $4.1-billion to $4.5-billion, at an 8% discount, and an internal rate of return of between 24.8% and 26.5%.
The study has put forward four production cases, ranging from 40-million tonnes a year to 60-million tonnes a year, with an estimated mine life of between 49 years and 66 years. Based on the 50-million-tonne-a-year mining scenario, the Alpala deposit is estimated to produce 207 000 t/y of copper, 438 000 oz/y of gold and 1.4-million ounces a year of silver in concentrate in the first 25 years of operations.
The project will produce high-quality concentrates (28.2% copper, 22.1 g/t gold and 65.7 g/t silver), which should deliver a sales premium for the concentrates.
SolGold traded at £35 a share by 14:20 GMT, up 22% on the previous day’s closing price.