Resource World Magazine

6 www.resourceworld.com A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 1 7 C anada's Yukon has seen a great deal of romance and adventure with the famous Klondike gold rush of 1898. Actually, alluvial mining continues to this day; however, the territory also hosts major hard rock gold deposits as well – the origi- nal source of the placer gold. Notable gold discoveries include the Kinross Gold Corp. [K-TSX; KGC-NYSE] White Gold deposit and the Goldcorp [G-TSX; GG-NYSE] Coffee Project – attesting to the tremendous pro- spectivity of the Yukon. Now armed with a positive Feasibility Study completed by engineering consul- tants JDS Energy & Mining, and permits in hand, Victoria Gold Corp. [VIT-TSXV] is preparing to build the road-accessible Eagle, open pit, heap leach, gold mine located 85 km north of Mayo, which has a government-maintained gravel air- strip, and 375 km north of the capital of Whitehorse. Six other consulting firms were also employed to help prepare the Feasibility Study. Unlike many conventional gold mines, the Eagle gold mine will be a heap leach operation with a low capital cost of only $370 million. In an interview, John McConnell, President and CEO of Victoria Gold, told Resource World, "It's a very sim- ple operation. I usually round that number up to $400 million to be safe. There's no mill and no tailings pond – so these are very appropriate capital costs." McConnell has 35 years' experi- ence in the mining industry that covers operations, permitting, engineering and project management with De Beers Canada, Western Keltic, Nanisivik, Strathcona and Breakwater. Referring to the decision to go it alone, McConnell mused, "It just seemed like the natural thing to do was to build it. If somebody comes along and makes our shareholders an offer they can't refuse, that's another story." McConnell said the company is explor- ing various financing options. "I generally work in US dollars so we are talking about US $300 million. We currently have US $40 million in the treasury. Three weeks ago, we signed an engagement letter with BNP Paribas, one of the large European banks for a debt facility of US $220 million. So to cover the funding gap of around US $40 million we are looking at equity markets and potentially bringing in a joint venture partner, gold streams, bringing in another strategic investor, or it could be a combi- nation of all those things," he said. Still in its infancy, heap leaching can be done in the cold climate of the Yukon and has operated successfully at the Brewery Creek Mine in Yukon, the Fort Knox Mine in Alaska and several other cold climate locations. Victoria Gold building Yukon's next gold mine by Ellsworth Dickson

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