40 www.resourceworld.com
D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8
F
or the past 10 years, Western Copper
and Gold Corp. [WRN-TSX; NYSE
AMERICAN] has been advancing its
100%-owned Casino copper-gold-silver-
molybdenum porphyry project located
about 380 km northwest of Whitehorse in
the gently rolling hills of western Yukon.
A major greenfield project, the Casino
Feasibility Study released in 2013 was
recently reviewed by the company. The
review confirmed the expected positive eco-
nomic returns. As of press time, copper has
continued its gradual rise in price to the cur-
rent US $3.18/lb – up from about US $2.20/
lb a year ago. While rather volatile, gold is
currently trading about US $1,280/oz.
The review confirmed that the Internal
Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value
(NPV), at current commodity prices and
exchange rates, are comparable to the
base case metrics in the Feasibility Study.
Capital and operating costs were updated
as part of the analysis. The Feasibility
Study showed that the Casino Project is
expected to have an after-tax NPV of $1.83
billion (8% discount rate), an after-tax IRR
of 20.1% and a 3.0 year pay-back over
its 22-year mine life (LOM). Mine life is
expected to be extended with the extrac-
tion of the inferred resources.
The open pit mining project would
utilize both milling and heap leaching to
produce 45.4 million tonnes of mill feed ore
per year. As it stands, gold reserves total
8.9 million ounces with copper reserves at
4.5 billion lbs. In addition, inferred gold
resources are pegged at 9.0 million ounces
with inferred copper resources totaling 5.4
billion lbs. This translates to 965 million
tonnes of mill ore plus 157 million tonnes
of heap leach ore (proven + probable).
Over the first four years of operation
the Casino Mine is expected to produce,
per year, 245 million lb of copper; 399,000
oz of gold; 15.3 million lb of molybde-
Western Copper and Gold confirms Casino economics
One of Canada's premier copper-gold mining projects,
the Casino Mine is gradually taking shape.
by Ellsworth Dickson
MINING
