{"id":1183196,"date":"2020-05-07T18:17:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T23:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1023186"},"modified":"2020-05-07T18:17:47","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T23:17:47","slug":"equinox-tables-pea-for-underground-development-at-aurizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1183196","title":{"rendered":"Equinox tables PEA for underground development at Aurizona"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Equinox Gold&nbsp;has released the results of a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) on an underground development within its Aurizona mine site in northeastern Brazil.<\/p>\n<div class='ad-slot' id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {    googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');    googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function (event) {        if (event.isEmpty) {            var id = event.slot.getSlotElementId();            var x = document.getElementById(id);            if(x == null) return;            if (x.parentElement.classList.contains('ad-slot')) {                x.parentElement.style.display = 'none';            }\t\t\t\t        }    });});<\/script><\/div>\n<p>The early-stage study suggests a feed contribution of 2,800 t\/d from the Piaba underground to the existing 8,000 t\/d plant at the site. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p> This incremental operation would deliver an additional 740,500 oz. of gold over 11 years <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>This incremental operation would deliver an additional 740,500 oz. of gold over 11 years at all-in sustaining costs (AISC) of $925 per oz. at an initial capital cost of $69.7 million. <\/p>\n<p>The resulting after-tax net present value for this development, at a 5% discount rate, comes in at $122 million with a 25% internal rate of return.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis PEA demonstrates the substantial opportunity for both mine life extension and increased annual gold production at Aurizona through development of an underground mine,\u201d CEO Christian Milau said in a release. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the potential for expansions to the current open pit, additions of other near-surface resources and further opportunities for Piaba underground resource expansion at depth and along strike, Aurizona is expected to be a long-life cornerstone asset for Equinox Gold.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Based on the PEA, the underground deposit would be extracted through bulk mining with first mill feed expected 2.3 years after the start of sub-surface development. <\/p>\n<p>Steady-state production of 2,800 t\/d would be achieved at the end of the fourth year following the start of construction. The deposit would be accessible from a main ramp developed off of the existing pit.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 7.3 million tonnes of indicated resources at 1.96 g\/t gold and 16.5 million inferred tonnes grading 1.98 g\/t at Aurizona, the PEA envisions development of 2.8 million tonnes of the indicated material grading 2.73 g\/t gold and 6.2 million tonnes of the inferred subset at 2.89 g\/t gold.<\/p>\n<p>The company plans to advance further studies on an underground development of Piaba with a pre-feasibility expected next year. Additional drilling is planned to upgrade existing resources. <\/p>\n<p>The Piaba deposit has been traced over 4 km along the Aurizona shear zone and drilled down to a depth of roughly 600 metres; it remains open at depth and along strike.<\/p>\n<p>The Aurizona open-pit mine achieved commercial production in July 2019. <\/p>\n<p>The company\u2019s most recent production guidance for the asset this year was at 115,000 oz. to 125,000 oz. of gold at AISCs of $1,100 to $1,150 per oz. These numbers do not include potential effects due to covid-19.<\/p>\n<p><em>(This article first appeared in the&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.canadianminingjournal.com\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Canadian Mining<br \/>\nJournal<\/em><\/a><em>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The early-stage study suggests a feed contribution of 2,800 t\/d from the Piaba underground to the existing 8,000 t\/d plant at the site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[43],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1183196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1183197,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183196\/revisions\/1183197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1183196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1183196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1183196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}