Gold Resource, a US-based gold and silver producer, has broken ground on its flagship $30m Isabella Pearl gold project located in south-central Nevada's Walker Lane Mineral Belt in Mineral County, Nevada.
Image: A gold rock. Photo: courtesy of PHGCOM/Wikipedia.org.
Construction on the Isabella Pearl open pit heap leach gold project follows receipt of the final permit and the board approval last month to move ahead with the project. Gold Resource is targeting first gold production from the Isabella Pearl mine within the next 12 months.
While the proven and probable reserves at the Isabella Pearl mine have been estimated to be a total of 192,600 gold ounces, the company is targeting recovery of 153,000 gold ounces after dilution and recovery estimates. The gold miner currently expects Isabella Pearl to have a four-year mine life.
Gold Resource said that Ledcor Group had started clearing and grubbing operations to facilitate construction of the heap leach pad at the mine. The miner said that crushing plant and radial stackers among other processing equipment are being prepared to be deployed at the project location.
Gold Resource CEO and president Jason Reid said: “This Project is an important driver of Gold Resource Corporation’s growth profile, which includes targeting a more than 100% increase to our annual gold production from Isabella Pearl’s first full year of commercial production.”
The Isabella Pearl is contained in Gold Resource’s Nevada Mining Unit, which also has the Mina Gold, County Line, Gold Mesa and East Camp Douglas mining assets.
The company anticipates an annual gold production of 29,000 ounces during the first year, 41,000 ounces during the second and third years, and 42,000 ounces in the fourth year.
Gold Resource expects the average cash count for the gold production to be around $650 per ounce with annual costs estimated to come down year-over-year with the mining of higher grades and decline in strip ratios.
The company expects to expand the reserves of the Isabella Pearl gold project by conducting exploration drilling in the future. For this, it has marked two new exploration targets – Scarlet and Civit Cat North within the existing permitted mine plan apart from various exploration targets outside of the mine plan but located in its claims.