Azarga Metals Corp reports positive findings of an independently prepared PEA for the development of its wholly-owned Unkur copper-silver project in the Zabaikalsky administrative region of eastern Russia. The PEA is based on the current Inferred Mineral Resource estimate for Unkur of 62 Mt at 0.53% Cu and 38.6g/t Ag, containing 328,600 t of copper and 76.8 Moz of silver.

Dorian L. (Dusty) Nicol, Azarga Metals’ President and CEO commented, “We are extremely encouraged that even based only on our initial exploration, Unkur is able to demonstrate a positive PEA result.” He then went on to say, “Additional exploration is expected to significantly grow the size of the deposit and this will likely continue to enhance the project economics when an updated PEA is prepared.”

Highlights:

• Positive PEA result achieved based only on 2018 Mineral Resource as an ‘initial option’ with significant growth potential
• Open-pit mine with annual production rate of 2 Mt/y of ore and conventional processing circuit to produce a very high-grade copper and silver concentrate
• Average of 13,217 t of copper and 3.70 Moz of silver metal contained in concentrate production per year over eight-year life of mine
• Pre-tax NPV of $203.6 million (post-tax $147.5 million) and IRR of 28.9%
• Updated ‘follow-on’ PEA to be prepared following completion of exploration works to grow the Mineral Resource at Unkur.