After its initial application, the company received from the State of Oregon a detailed completeness review and recommendations for the submission of a modified CPA
Paramount Gold submits state permit application for its proposed Grassy Mountain Gold Mine. (Credit: PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay)
Paramount Gold Nevada Corp. (NYSE American: PZG) (“Paramount”) announced today that it has submitted a modified Consolidated Permit Application (“Application” or “CPA”) with the State of Oregon seeking approval to construct and operate its proposed, high-grade gold mine located in Malheur County in eastern Oregon.
Paramount CEO, Rachel Goldman commented: “We have a high degree of confidence that the rigorous review and subsequent modifications will result in the CPA achieving administrative completeness which will mark a first in the state of Oregon for a proposed modern mine. With the submission of the revised CPA, the prospect of receiving permits and advancing Grassy towards production will represent a historic moment for the communities of eastern Oregon and for the state. Equally as important is the substantial value-creating opportunity that a production scenario creates for our stockholders.”
After its initial application, the Company received from the State of Oregon a detailed completeness review and recommendations for the submission of a modified CPA. To ensure a complete modified CPA, the Company, with its industry leading permitting consultants, worked diligently with the State of Oregon’s lead permitting agency, the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (“DOGAMI”), and all other permitting and cooperating agencies involved in the process to address the issues and recommendations raised in the completeness review.
In addition to responding to the State of Oregon’s completeness review, the modified CPA includes changes and additional information that resulted from mine design optimizations and permitting regulation changes. The modified CPA includes, but is not limited to the following:
– Completion of additional geotechnical drilling and design of the waste rock dump to improve stability analysis;
– Further analysis and modeling of ground water including new data gathered for the Feasibility Study;
– Design review of the Tailings Storage Facility’s leak collection and detection systems;
– Adjustments to the Wildlife Protection and Mitigation plan including design adjustments to include Avian diverters and wildlife protection measurements;
– Adjustments to the personnel safety and environmental training program to include additional detail on the transport of dangerous materials and emergency protocols; and
-Revisions to the reclamation, monitoring and mine closure plan including associated cost estimates.
Prior to the submission of the modified CPA, last week the Company submitted the modified Plan of Operation (“Plan”) and all baseline data reports to the Bureau of Land Management for the federal approval.
Paramount President and COO, Glen Van Treek stated: “The submission of the modified applications, to both the BLM and the DOGAMI, reflects our commitment to ensuring our proposed mine meets and exceeds all of the combined requirements under Oregon and federal regulations. We appreciate the level of collaboration from all the state permitting agencies that greatly assisted us in addressing the issues identified in the state’s completeness review. We continue to have the utmost confidence in our ability to permit, build and operate Grassy Mountain.”
The DOGAMI along with the other permitting and cooperating agencies will review the modified CPA for completeness. Once the modified CPA is deemed complete, the State of Oregon will proceed with completing an environmental evaluation and socio-economic analysis and instruct permitting agencies to prepare draft permits. Under the law, the State must complete these steps within 225 days.
The proposed high grade, underground Grassy Mountain gold mine will be the first modern mine in the state of Oregon, which based on the Feasibility Study will be a highly profitable operation with a quick initial payback. Highlights of the study in the base case scenario, which were completed using a price of $1,472 and $16.96 per ounce of gold and silver respectively, include:
-Initial 8 year mine life producing 362,000 ounces of gold and 425,000 ounces silver in a 750 tpd mine and milling operation;
-Low initial capital requirement of $97.5 million includes $10.1M of estimated contingencies, $25.6M of sustaining CapEx and $6.3M closure costs;
-Life of mine cash costs of $5831 and AISC of $6712 per ounce of gold3;
-Annual production of 47,000 ounces of gold and 55,000 ounces of silver;
-Exceptional gold and silver recoveries average 92.8% and 73.5 % respectively;
-At Feasibility Study (FS) metal prices of $1470 for gold and $17 for silver, payback of 3.1 years with an IRR of 26.0% and an NPV5% of $105M which increase significantly to 40.9% and $195M at $1,900 gold (all figures after tax); and
-Total free cash flow of $165M (post-tax) at the three year look back FS metal prices.
Source: Company Press Release