Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/912601
42 www.resourceworld.com D E C E M B E R / J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 8 Yukon owned and operated with over 35 years experience in Custom Mobile Aggregate Production 6 MacDonald Road, Whitehorse YT Y1A 4Y5 Tel (867) 668-3662 Fax (867) 633-5354 nuwaycrushing@gmail.com this is all just extra as the project doesn't even require these higher prices." The Casino Mine has a CapEx of US $2.46 billion and Western Copper is tak- ing steps to address funding. "If we look at the timeline right now, the fastest that we could get through regulatory approvals and get permitting is around three years," explained West-Sells. "We have had a lot of conversations with debt lenders and potential project partners but we've got a couple of years to get a little farther down the regulatory road with permitting before we need to do the heavy lifting on that." Regarding a target date for mine con- struction start, West-Sells said, "As soon as possible; however, it's difficult to predict how fast regulatory processes will take, and they often take longer than expected." Mine construction is estimated to be about four years; however, after two years, the plan is for the heap leach processing operation to start up. This means there will be initial gold production from the heap leach pad in two years and then, after four years, there will be full production from the conventional milling operation. While it seems rather counter-intuitive to use outdoor heap leach extraction in the cold Far North, it is already used at the Kinross Fort Knox Mine in Alaska. It will also be used at Victoria Gold's Eagle Mine (Dublin Gulch) and Goldcorp's Coffee Mine, both in the Yukon. "The sort of test case for using heap leach technology in the Yukon was the Brewery Creek Mine," said West-Sells. "Brewery Creek was a small operation that produced in the early 2000s. Some of the people that were involved with Brewery Creek helped in our design as well as on the Coffee Project. The Fort Knox heap leach operation is interesting in that it is exactly the same in terms of the size and grade that we're contemplating at the Casino Mine." The heap leaching operation will pro- cess 25,000 tonnes per day while the conventional mill will average 124,000 tonnes per day. Concentrate will be trucked 560 km to the year-round port at Skagway, Alaska. Power to the Casino Project will be sup- plied by LNG trucked from Fort Nelson, northern British Columbia. To that end, a MOU has been signed with Ferus Natural Gas to supply the fuel at Fort Nelson. The LNG will be stored at the project site and used to generate electricity in gas-fired turbines at a cost of 9.5ȼ/kWh with a capital cost of $209 million. The existing Casino airstrip will be upgraded at a cost of $24 million. Some 1,000 workers will be needed at peak construction and about 600 employees at peak production. Western Copper and Gold has 95,123,935 shares outstanding. The com- pany has $5.9 million in cash and short term investments and $5.8 million of working capital. Osisko Gold Royalties Ltd. [OR-TSX] holds a 2.75% net smelter return royalty. n For more information email: study@nlc.bc.ca 1-866-463-6652 • nlc.bc.ca Consider YOUR future in Growth and opportunity exists in Northeastern British Columbia! 17.11.23-d