Austral restarts Casposo precious metals mine

VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – ASX- and TSX-V-listed Austral Gold is restarting operations at its Argentina-based Casposo gold/silver project, based on the results of an updated reserve estimate.

As at June 30, Vancouver-based Austral reported compliant proven and probable reserves of 972 000 t grading 2.53 g/t gold and 231 g/t silver, containing about 79 000 oz of gold and 7.2-million ounces of silver. Measured and indicated resources, including reserves, stood at 1.4-million tonnes at 3 g/t gold and 238 g/t silver, containing about 136 500 oz gold and 10.8-million ounces silver.

The project, with a four-year mine life, has a calculated after-tax net present value, at a 5% discount, of $37-million.

It will implement an 800 t/d, or 300 000 t/y, operation for processing underground ore, producing 21 000 oz/y of gold and 1.7-million ounces a year of silver at all-in-sustaining costs of $1 038/oz gold equivalent.

The life-of-mine capital totals $41.7-million, including reclamation and closure costs.

Austral will fund the project from existing internal cash resources.

According to Austral, the technical report confirms that the optimisation of the plant and move to small-scale mining will support a robust and economically viable underground gold and silver mine.