Mar 28 2013
Oromin Explorations Ltd. ("Oromin"), on behalf of Oromin Joint Venture Group ("OJVG"), announces that the NI 43-101 Technical Report "OJVG Golouma Gold Project Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Heap Leach Potential" ("PEA") has been filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and is also available on Oromin's website.
The positive results of the PEA update for the OJVG Gold Project in Senegal, West Africa were previously announced in separate Oromin news release on January 31, 2013 and are summarized below. All figures are in US Dollars.
Heap Leach PEA Update - Highlights
- A proposed heap leach operation provides an opportunity to capture value from lower grade resources on the project.
- At a gold price of $1,550/oz the pre-tax Net Present Value is $98 million and after-tax is $76 million at a 5% discount rate generating an after-tax internal rate of return of 36% with an 1.9 year payback
- Average annual heap leach gold production for the first full three years of production is 36,000 ounces per year at a $760 operating cash cost per ounce
- Average annual life of mine ("LOM") heap leach gold production is 27,000 ounces per year at an operating cash cost of $929 per ounce
- Several open pit gold deposits will provide a heap leach production period of just over 14 years
- Average estimated LOM gold recovery of 70%
- Based on the assumption that the heap leach operation would be an extension to the proposed CIL operation, the estimated heap leach start-up capital cost is $54 million including a $10.5 million contingency
- The size of the heap leach resource potential is such that a significant increase in the throughput rate for the currently assumed 2 Mt up to 4-5 Mt/year is likely warranted
- All of the heap leach deposits remain open to expansion and a minimum of fourteen additional exploration prospects may further enhance the Project's future resource base
Oromin emphasizes to readers that the prospective heap leach development scenario summarized above is entirely in addition to the much larger carbon-in-leach ("CIL") project summarized in our news release last week on March 19th. The CIL conventional mining-milling project anticipates a mine life of 17 years with LOM gold production of 144,000 ounces per year, including 182,000 ounces annually in the initial three years of full production. The pre-tax NPV5% of the CIL project is $740 million and post-tax $558 million, using a $1,550 per ounce gold price.
Oromin is continuing to work with its OJVG partners and its financial advisor, RBC Capital Markets, to access development, financing and strategic alternatives towards maximizing Project value.
Authors / Qualified Persons
The technical report titled "OJVG Golouma Gold Project Updated Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Heap Leach Potential" was prepared on behalf of OJVG by Oromin Explorations Ltd. under the direction of Ken Kuchling, P.Eng. and Douglas Turnbull, P.Geo, Oromin's designated Qualified Person for this news release who has reviewed and validated that the information in this release is consistent with the information presented in the PEA.
Source: http://www.oromin.com/