Nevada Copper Corp has completed, and SEDAR-filed, a Technical Report prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 for its 100%-owned Pumpkin Hollow Copper Project located near Yerington, Nevada.
The Technical Report discloses the proposed development of a 5,000 t/d underground project at a PFS level. This is the primary focus of the Technical Report. The Technical Report also includes feasibility-level information on the potential development of a large 70,000 t/d mine at Pumpkin Hollow with feed mainly from the nearby open pit deposits, but also from the same Mineral Resources as accessed in the Underground Project. This is referred to within the Technical Report as the Integrated Project. It was originally disclosed in a NI 43-101 2015 Feasibility Study Technical Report (2015 IFS) for which the scientific and technical information is materially unchanged, and remains a viable development option.
The Pumpkin Hollow Property encompasses the only fully-permitted copper project of scale in the United States, comprising two potential copper projects both of which are disclosed in the Technical Report:
- The high-grade Underground Project; and
- The Integrated Project, a large scale open pit and underground project with reserves of 5 billion pounds of copper, 0.76 Moz of gold and 27.6 Moz of silver
The two projects, which are mutually exclusive and are each viable development options, benefit from over $220 million of prior expenditures which funded a significant amount of engineering work and technical studies, and construction of a production-sized headframe and hoist, warehouse, a 1,900 ft deep, 24 ft diameter concrete-lined production size shaft and over 600 ft of lateral development.
The PFS for the Underground Project leverages upon the substantial existing infrastructure at the site, including power, water, road access, plus a production shaft and lateral mine development. The objective of the PFS has been to optimise the previously-defined underground portion of the Mineral Resources at Pumpkin Hollow with a focus on reduced capital cost; higher mined ore grades; reduced operating cost profile; de-risked construction plan, including brownfield assets, EPC construction approach and contract mining during ramp-up; and a philosophy on focusing on “margin-over-tonnes,” while maintaining expansion and extension optionality.
The Technical Report was prepared under the direction of Sedgman Canada Ltd (part of the Cimic Group) as lead, along with Mining Plus Ltd. Planned commencement of construction is by mid-2018 (subject to board approval and financing); with targeted first production in mid-2019. An experienced mining contractor is to be utilised for underground development and mine ramp-up, for which initial contractor tenders have been completed.
The Underground Project does not impact Nevada Copper’s ability to develop a future project on the adjacent deposits accessible by open pit methods; and significant optimisation opportunities have been identified for an open pit project, including potential to convert assumed waste material to potential mineral resources, and eventually ore, through drilling in the Northern Extension and Connector Zones and additional engineering studies; as well as to reduce project costs through updated project estimation; and reduce capital costs by optimising the project scale.