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Resource World - December-January 2018 - Vol 16 Issue 1

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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

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