Resource World Magazine

12 www.resourceworld.com a p r i l / m a y 2 0 1 5 9 10 McEwen Mining also holds the Tonkin gold project in the Battle Mountain-Eureka Trend, Eureka County, Nevada. lUndin gOld inc. [lUg-TSX, OmX] In December 2014, Lundin Gold, a mem- ber of the Lundin Group of companies, acquired the Fruta del Norte gold project in southeast Ecuador. The gold deposit was discovered by Aurelian Resources and bought out for US $1.2 billion by Kinross Gold. Now Lundin Gold, formerly Fortress Minerals, has bought Fruta del Norte from Kinross for US $240 million. Kinross dropped the project due to a punishing Ecuadorian tax regime that Lundin Gold management expects to be amended to a more fair tax on mining companies. In October 2014, a NI 43-101 compli- ant resource estimate was completed by independent consultants, RPA Inc., at a cut-off grade of 3.4 g/t gold. The RPA report stated indicated resources stand at of 23.5 million tonnes at an average grade of 9.59 g/t gold and 12.9 g/t silver, for a total of 7.26 million oz gold and 9.73 mil- lion oz silver. Inferred resources are 14.5 million tonnes at an average grade of 5.46 g/t gold and 2.55 g/t silver containing 2.55 million oz gold and 5.27 million oz silver. Lundin Gold expects the project can move swiftly into feasibility and ulti- mately a construction decision. Some $279 million has been spent on exploration and development, including over 150 km of drilling with excellent potential remain- ing to expand known resources. Work to date, including various studies, indicates that the deposit can potentially support an underground mine. The company has assembled an engi- neering team to carry out a feasibility study to establish the best economic options for the development of Fruta del Norte into a large scale, low cost, under- ground, gold mining operation. nEmaSKa liThiUm inc. [nmX-TSXv; nmKEF-OTcQX] Nemaska Lithium has received a positive PEA for its Wabouchi hard-rock lithium, beryllium project located 30 km east of Nemaska, James Bay region, 300 km north- west of Chibougamau, Québec. The project is one of the richest spodumene lithium deposits in the world, both in volume and grade. Spodumene concentrate produced at Whabouchi and from other global sources will be shipped to the company's 500 tonne/year lithium hydroxide/carbonate processing plant to be located in Salaberry- de-Valleyfield, Québec. The plant will transform spodumene concentrate into high purity lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate mainly for the expand- ing lithium battery market. Patent applications have been filed for Nemaska's proprietary methods to produce lith- ium hydroxide and lithium carbonate. Nemaska received a $12.87 million tech- nology commercialization grant for the hydromet plant from federally-funded Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). The Wabouchi Mine will be both open pit and underground. Proven and prob- able open pit reserves stand at 1.7 million tonnes grading 1.58% Li 2 O with under- ground proven and probable reserves at 7.3 million tonnes of Li 2 O. An independent feasibility study for the mine and plant envisages a yearly aver- age production rate of 213,000 tonnes of 6% Li 2 O spodumene concentrate, 28,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide and 3,250 tonnes of lithium carbonate. Life-of-mine revenues are projected to be US $6.9 bil- lion, averaging US $267 million per year for 26 years. The after-tax NPV (10% dis- count) is $580 million. After-tax IRR is 21%. The total initial capital costs are esti- mated to be $521 million, including a contingency of $52 million and $21 mil- lion of working capital. Project payback is expected to be 3.7 years. Federal and provincial permitting is under way. n

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