Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/554714
8 www.resourceworld.com a u g u s t / s e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 5 President and CEO. The project will be funded through free cash flow and available cash balances, and leverage Newmont's existing equipment, infrastructure and personnel. Capital expenditures will be allocated roughly equally in 2015 and 2016, with minimal spending in 2017. Federal and state permits have been secured following a 36-month study and public comment period. Once in operation, Long Canyon Phase I is expected to directly employ about 260 people. Golden Queen Mining Company Ltd. [GQM-TSX; GQMNF-OTCQX] is building the Soledad Mountain gold-silver mine just outside the town of Mojave in Kern County, southern California. The operation will use conventional open pit mining methods and the cyanide heap leach and Merrill-Crowe processes to recover gold and silver from crushed, agglomerated ore. Based on the February 2015 feasibility study, production is projected to average approximately 74,000 ounces of gold and 781,000 ounces of sil- ver per year, although this is expected to fluctuate from year to year depending upon ore head grades. Over the approximate 11-year mine life, produc- tion is projected to be 807,000 ounces of gold and 8.3 million ounces of silver, using a base case gold price of US $1,250/oz and silver price of US $17/oz. First quartile total cash costs net of by-products are US $518/oz gold (including royalties, California fees, property taxes, off-site refining charges and reclamation financial assurance) and US $558/oz gold including sustaining capital costs. Pre-production capital costs of approximately $144 million are in-line with the capital costs update of March 2014. Mobile mining equipment is intended to be financed through Komatsu. The after-tax NPV is US $214 million (5% discount rate) with an after-tax IRR of return of 28.3%. Only 65% of the resource was included in the fea- sibility study. Access to site is from State Route 14 and an existing paved county road. A power line crosses the property boundary and the Union-Pacific rail- road lines parallel State Route 14 within ~1 mile of the project. The Soledad Mountain Mine is advancing on time and on budget with commissioning of the pro- cessing facilities scheduled for the fourth quarter of this year. Pershing Gold Corp. [PGLC-NASDAQ] has been acquiring and consolidating mining claims,