Treasury Metals Completes Pre-Feasibility Study for Goliath Gold Complex
Treasury Metals Completes Pre-Feasibility
Study for Goliath Gold Complex
TSX: TML OTCQX: TSRMF
Positive Results for the PFS with
Post-tax NPV of
$425 million
and
30.1% IRR at Spot Prices
TORONTO
,
Feb. 22, 2023
/CNW/ -
Treasury Metals Inc.
(TSX: TML) (OTCQX: TSRMF)
("
Treasury
" or "the
Company
") is pleased to announce the results of the Pre-feasibility Study (the
"
PFS
"), prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards for Disclosure for
Mineral Projects ("
NI 43–101
"), for its 100%-owned Goliath Gold Complex (the "
Project
" or "
GGC
")
located in the Wabigoon Greenstone Belt in northwestern
Ontario
, which includes the Goliath
("
Goliath
"), Goldlund ("
Goldlund
") and Miller ("
Miller
") deposits. All dollar figures are expressed in
Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated.
PFS Highlights:
Positive Economics –
Unlevered post-tax net present value at a 5% discount rate ("
NPV
") of
$336 million
and post-tax unlevered internal rate of return ("
IRR
") of 25.4%, using a long-term
gold price of
US$1,750
per ounce and an exchange rate of
US$1.00
to
C$1.34
.
Increased Production –
Average annual production increased from 79,000 ounces to 90,000
ounces per year, with peak production increasing from 119,000 ounces to 128,000 ounces
(year 2), compared to the 2021 Preliminary Economic Assessment ("
PEA
") [1] for the Project.
Total ounces produced increased from 1.065 million ounces to 1.175 million ounces, with
increased production in the first nine years of mine life.
Initial Mineral Reserve Declared –
Proven and Probable Mineral Reserve of 1.3 million ounces
gold (30.3 million tonnes at 1.3 g/t Au).
Low Capital ("Capex") Intensity Project –
Estimated Initial capital of
$335 million
, including a
30% increase to process plant capacity compared to the PEA, with life of mine capital of
$552
million
including closure costs and salvage values and a post-tax payback period of 2.8 years.
Competitive Costs and Profitability –
Cash costs of
US$820
/oz, All-In Sustaining Costs
("
AISC
") of
US$1,008
/oz and annual EBITDA and free cash flows of
$145 million
and
$106
million
, respectively, over the first five years of production. Life-of-mine free cash flows of
$869
million
, cash costs of
US$935
/oz and AISC of
US$1,072
on a by-product basis.
Optimization work to commence to unlock further value towards a Feasibility Study.
________________________________
1
For more information on the PEA, see the Company's technical report entitled "N.I. 43-101 Technical Report & Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Goliath Gold Complex" and
dated effective January 28, 2021, available on SEDAR at
www.sedar.com
. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves have not demonstrated economic viability. The PEA is
preliminary in nature in that it includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative to have economic considerations applied to them and should not be relied upon
for that purpose.
Jeremy Wyeth
, President and CEO of Treasury Metals Inc., commented: "This PFS released by the
Company supports the values from the PEA. We are pleased with the results, which in some cases
exceed the values from the PEA, with the addition of more detailed engineering work completed in
the PFS. The PFS shows strong base-case economics, with great leverage to higher gold prices, in
spite of current short-term inflationary pressures. The mine plan has grown from the PEA and the
higher throughput has allowed us to get economies of scale to maintain these solid economics. We
believe that additional optimization work will assist us in unlocking further value into the Feasibility
Study and we will continue with exploration activities to look for opportunities to extend and expand
the mine plan. I am pleased that the Board has approved that we move forward into value
engineering and a Feasibility Study."
Pre-Feasibility Study Summary
This independent PFS was developed by Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc. with collaboration from
SRK Consulting (
Canada
) Inc., SLR Consulting (
Canada
) Ltd., Minnow Environmental Inc., WSP
Canada Inc. and Stantec Inc. These firms provided mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates,
design parameters and cost estimates for mine operations, process facilities, waste and tailings
storage, permitting, reclamation, equipment selection and operating and capital expenditures.
Table 1: Summary of Project Economics
Financial Summary and Analysis
General
Gold Price/Silver Price
US$/oz
$1,750/$21
Exchange Rate
US$:C$
$1.34
Mine Life
years
13.0
Total Mill Feed Tonnes
kt
30,318
Strip Ratio
3.11
Pro
duction
Mill Head Grade LOM
g/t
1.30
Mill Recovery Rate
%
92.77 %
Total Mill Ounces Recovered
koz
1,175
Total Annual Average Production
koz
90
Operating Cost
Mining Cost
C$/t Milled
$32.83
Processing Cost
C$/t Milled
$11.34
G&A Cost
C$/t Milled
$3.54
Total Operating Costs
C$/t Milled
$47.71
Cash Costs*
US$/oz
$935
AISC**
US$/oz
$1,072
Capital Cost
Initial Capital
C$M
$335
Sustaining Capital
C$M
$198
Closure Costs & Salvage Value
C$M
$19
Financial Pre-tax
NPV
C$M
$469
IRR
29.3 %
Payback
years
2.8
Financial Post-tax
NPV
C$M
$336
IRR
25.4 %
Payback
years
2.8
*Cash costs consist of mining costs, processing costs, G&A and refining charges and royalties. Calculated on a by-product basis. See notes on Non-IFRS Financial Measures for
more details.
**AISC includes cash costs plus sustaining capital. Calculated on a by-product basis. See notes on Non-IFRS Financial Measures for more details.
Mineral Reserves
The PFS is based on the combined open pit and underground Measured and Indicated portion of the
Goliath Gold Complex Mineral Resource Estimate, as released on
April 14, 2022
(see Table 3
below). The Proven and Probable Mineral Reserves for the Project are estimated at 30.3 million
tonnes at an average grade of 1.3 g/t Au for 1.3 million ounces of contained gold as outlined in Table
2 below.
Table 2: Goliath Gold Complex Mineral Reserve Estimate
Goliath Gold Complex
Type
Classification
Tonnes (kt)
Au (g/t)
Au (koz)
Ag (g/t)
Ag (koz)
Open Pit
Goliath
Proven
3,969
1.05
134
3.22
410
Probable
5,580
0.67
119
2.20
395
Proven & Probable
9,549
0.83
254
2.62
805
Open Pit
Goldlund
Proven
–
–
–
–
–
Probable
16,256
1.19
621
–
–
Proven & Probable
16,256
1.19
621
–
–
Open Pit
Miller
Proven
–
–
–
–
–
Probable
738
1.03
24
–
–
Proven & Probable
738
1.03
24
–
–
Underground
Goliath
Proven
596
3.96
76
16.73
321
Probable
3,180
2.85
292
5.85
598
Proven & Probable
3,776
3.03
368
7.56
918
Total
Proven
4,565
1.43
210
4.98
731
Probable
25,574
1.28
1,057
1.20
993
Proven & Probable
30,319
1.30
1,267
1.77
1,724
1.
Mineral Reserves are founded on and included within the Mineral Resource estimates, with an effective date of January 17, 2022.
2.
Mineral Reserves were developed in accordance with CIM Definition Standards (2014).
3.
Open pit Mineral Reserves incorporate 10%, 7% and 9% dilution for Goliath, Goldlund and Miller, respectively. Open pit Mineral Reserves include 1% loss for Goliath and Miller,
no losses are included for Goldlund. Goliath underground Mineral Reserves include 5% dilution and 0% loss for development. For stopes at Goliath underground, the Mineral
Reserves include 15% dilution (both downhole and up hole stopes) and 90% (downhole) and 80% (up hole) recovery.
4.
Open pit Mineral Reserves are reported based on open pit mining within designed pits above cut-off values of C$15.22/t, C$16.00/t and C$23.63/t for Goliath, Goldlund and Miller,
respectively. Goliath underground Mineral Reserves are reported based on underground mining within designed underground stopes above an in-situ cut-off value of
C$124.00/t. The cut-off values are based on a gold price of US$1,550/oz Au, a silver price of US$22, transportation costs of C$5/oz Au, payability of 99% Au and 97% Ag, LOM
average gold recoveries of 94.2% for Goliath, 94.3% for Goldlund and 94.0% for Miller, and a silver recovery of 60% for Goliath.
5.
Underground Mineral Reserves following Year 13 have been removed from the LOM plan and thus are excluded in the Mineral Reserve table above. Some low grade Goldlund
material above cut-off is not fed to the plant and therefore not included in the Mineral Reserves.
6.
The qualified person for the open pit Mineral Reserve estimate is Colleen MacDougall, P.Eng; and the qualified person for the underground Mineral Reserve estimate is Sean
Kautzman, P.Eng, both are SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc. employees.
7.
Rounding may result in apparent summation differences between tonnes, grade and contained metal.
Mineral Resources
The Treasury geology team worked with SRK Consulting (
Canada
) Inc. to select the best modelling
approaches for each deposit. Improved geological models were constructed for each deposit to
support the block model updates. The goal for the geological models and block models was to
ensure each deposit was as well represented as possible. Specific attention was placed on
capturing the higher-grade mineralization while not allowing those grades to mistakenly influence the
surrounding lower-grade halos.
Table 3: Goliath Gold Complex
Mineral Resource Estimate
Goliath Gold Complex
Type
Classification
Cut-off
Tonnes
Au (g/t)
Au (Oz)
Ag (g/t)
Ag (Oz)
Open Pit
Measured
0.25 / 0.3
6,223,000
1.20
239,500
4.70
940,600
Indicated
0.25 / 0.3
58,546,000
0.82
1,545,000
2.53
1,878,500
Meas+Ind
0.25 / 0.3
64,769,000
0.86
1,784,500
2.99
2,819,100
Inferred
0.25 / 0.3
32,301,000
0.73
754,900
0.80
85,200
Underground
Measured
2.20
170,000
6.24
34,100
22.34
122,100
Indicated
2.20
2,772,000
3.59
320,000
7.08
580,800
Meas+Ind
2.20
2,942,000
3.74
354,100
8.04
702,900
Inferred
2.20
270,000
3.21
27,900
4.06
6,300
Total
Measured
6,393,000
1.33
273,600
5.17
1,062,700
Indicated
61,318,000
0.95
1,865,000
2.98
2,459,300
Meas+Ind
67,711,000
0.98
2,138,600
3.42
3,522,000
Inferred
32,571,000
0.75
782,800
0.84
91,500
1.
Mineral Resources were estimated by ordinary kriging by Dr. Gilles Arseneau, associate consultant of SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc., Mineral Resources were prepared in
accordance with NI 43-101 and the CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves (2014) and the CIM Estimation of Mineral Resources and Mineral
Reserves Best Practice Guidelines (2019). This estimate of Mineral Resources may be materially affected by environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, sociopolitical,
marketing, or other relevant issues. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.
2.
Mineral Resource Estimate effective date: January 17, 2022.
3.
Goliath Open Pit Mineral Resources are reported within an optimized constraining shell at a cut-off grade of 0.25 g/t gold that is based on a gold price of US$1,700/oz, a silver
price of US$23/oz, and a gold and silver processing recovery of 93.873*Au(g/t)^0.021 and 60% respectively.
4.
Goldlund Open Pit Mineral Resources are reported within an optimized constraining shell at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t gold that is based on a gold price of US$1,700/oz and a
gold processing recovery of 90.344*Au(g/t)^0.0527.
5.
Miller Open Pit Mineral Resources are reported within an optimized constraining shell at a cut-off grade of 0.3 g/t gold that is based on a gold price of US$1,700/oz and a gold
processing recovery of 93.873*Au(g/t)^0.021.
6.
Goliath Underground Mineral Resources are reported inside shapes generated from Deswik Mining Stope Optimiser (DSO) at a cut-off grade of 2.2 g/t gold that is based on a
gold price of US$1,700/oz, a silver price of US$23/oz, and a gold and silver processing recovery of 93.873*Au(g/t)^0.021 and 60% respectively.
7.
Goldlund Underground Mineral Resources are reported inside DSO shapes at a cut-off grade of 2.2 g/t gold that is based on a gold price of US$1,700/oz and a gold processing
recovery of 90.344*Au(g/t)^0.0527.
8.
Gold and Silver assays were capped prior to compositing based on probability plot analysis for each individual zones. Assays were composited to 1.5 m for Goliath, 2.0 m for
Goldlund and 1.0 m for Miller.
9.
Excludes unclassified mineralization located within mined out areas.
10.
Silver grade and ounces are derived from the Goliath tonnage only.
11.
Goliath Open Pit and Goldlund/Miller cut-off grades are 0.25 g/t and 0.30 g/t, respectively.
12.
Mineral resources are inclusive of Mineral Reserves.
13.
All figures are rounded to reflect the estimates' relative accuracy, and totals may not add correctly.
Operations
Mining
The PFS contemplates both open pit and underground mining from the Goliath deposit and open pit
mining at the Goldlund and Miller deposits concurrently. The operations will feed a single processing
facility located at Goliath at 6,460 tpd or 2,358 ktpa. Goldlund and Miller feed will be hauled by
contractor in highway trucks to Goliath.
The open pit operations will be conventional drill, blast, load, and haul. Loading will be undertaken on
10 m benches with one
11 m
3
excavator and along with two
6 m
3
excavators which will be used with
63 t haul trucks in the pit. Mining will commence at Goliath with one year of pre-production and two
years of production. Production will move to Goldlund in Year 2 until Year 7. The final three stages
of Goliath will be mined in Years 7 to 9. Miller will be mined in Years 8 and 9. High grade (HG) feed
will be fed preferentially throughout the mine life, with lower grades used to fill the plant to capacity.
Mining from the pits will end in Year 9, after which the plant will be fed from the low grade (LG)
stockpiles from Goliath and Goldlund until the end of mine life, Year 13. Total material movement
from the open pit operations average 14 Mtpa for the first eight years.
Underground mining will be conducted using a long hole open stoping (LHOS) method following a
longitudinal retreat approach, with stopes extracted in a bottom-up sequence. The mining fleet will
be supplied and operated via a contractor and will consist of modern mobile equipment typically
used in narrow-vein LHOS scenarios. Development will begin after the Goliath open pit has started,
with production nearest the crown pillar targeted early in the life of mine (LOM) such that those
stopes are extracted and backfilled prior to deposition of tailings in the open pit. First ore is achieved
in Year 1 with sustained commercial production attained in Year 3. The peak annual ore tonnage is
scheduled for Year 7, with a steady decline in production in successive years as the number of
active working faces decreases. After mining ceases in Year 13, it will enter closure stage, with
approximately 3.8 Mt of ore processed from the underground mine.
Table 4: Segmented Production Schedule and Selected Financial Metrics
Annual Averages
Year 1-5
Year 6-9
Year 1-9
Year 10-13
LOM
Recovered Gold Ounces
koz
116
101
109
48
90
Head Grade - Gold
g/t
1.71
1.42
1.58
0.69
1.3
Recovered Silver Ounces
koz
78
80
79
82
80
Head Grade - Silver
g/t
1.76
1.75
1.76
1.79
1.77
Cash Cost*
US$/oz Au
$820
$996
$892
$1,156
$935
AISC**
US$/oz Au
$1,008
$1,081
$1,037
$1,176
$1,072
EBITDA
C$M
$145
$102
$126
$38
$99
Sustaining Capital
C$M
$29
$11
$21
$1
$15
Post-tax FCF
C$M
$106
$66
$88
$18
$67
*Cash costs consist of mining costs, processing costs, G&A and refining charges and royalties. Calculated on a by-product basis. See notes on Non-IFRS Financial Measures for
more details.
**AISC includes cash costs plus sustaining capital. Calculated on a by-product basis. See notes on Non-IFRS Financial Measures for more details.
Chart 1: Annual Tonnes Mined (CNW Group/Treasury Metals Inc.)
Chart 2: Annual Mill Feed (CNW Group/Treasury Metals Inc.)
Chart 3: Annual Production (CNW Group/Treasury Metals Inc.)
Metallurgical Recoveries
The testwork provided was analysed and several options for process routes were reviewed in the
initial stages of the pre-feasibility study. Based on the analysis, a conventional leach and carbon-in-
leach (CIL) process route was chosen as the most suitable for the deposit and project economics.
Gold recoveries include a deduction of 0.6% for soluble and plant loss. Silver recoveries are
estimated at 60%.
Table 5: PFS Gold Recoveries
Deposit
Average Recovery
Goliath
94.6 %
Goldlund
89.5 %
Miller
94.0 %
Total
92.8 %
Processing
The process plant was designed using conventional processing unit operations to treat up to 6,460
tpd (2.36 Mt/a) based on an availability of 8,059 hours per year or 92%. The crushing plant section
design is set at 67% availability.
Ore is hauled from the mine to the primary crushing facility equipped with an apron feeder, grizzly
feeder, and jaw crusher. The crushed ore will be conveyed to the secondary scalping screen, where
undersize material will bypass the secondary cone crusher while oversized material will be crushed.
The two streams will combine and be conveyed to the covered stockpile. The crushed ore will be
ground by a SAG mill followed by a closed-circuit ball mill with hydro-cyclone classification. The
cyclone feed pump will feed the cluster of hydro-cyclones and second feed pumps. The gravity
circuit will be comprised of one scalping screen and a centrifugal batch concentrator. The scalping
screen undersize will feed to the centrifugal concentrator, and the concentrate will be collected and
subsequently leached by the intensive cyanidation reactor circuit. The scalping screen oversize,
gravity concentrator tailings, and the intensive cyanidation reactor tailings will recirculate to the
cyclone feed pump box. The cyclone overflow will flow to the high-rate pre-leach thickener prior to
the conventional leach and CIL circuit with a final grind size of 80% passing 85 µm. The cyclone
underflow will report back to the ball mill.
Gold and silver adsorbed in the CIL circuit will be recovered onto activated carbon and eluted using
an AARL carbon elution circuit followed by electrowinning in the gold room. The gold-silver
electrowinning sludge will be dried in an oven and mixed with fluxes and smelted in a furnace to pour
gold doré bars.
Carbon
will be reactivated in a carbon regeneration kiln before being returned to the CIL circuit. CIL
tails slurry will be treated in cyanide destruction using the SO2/O2 air process before reporting to a
final tailings thickener. Thickener underflow is pumped to the tailings storage facility while tailings
thickener overflow reports to process water.
Tailings Management
The tailings management design was completed by SLR based on thickened tailings storage. There
are two storage approaches for the project:
A tailings storage facility (TSF) is designed for the storage of 18.5 Mt of thickened non-
segregating tailings in an on-site facility, and;
In-pit tailings deposition within the exhausted Goliath pit consisting of 9.4 Mt occurring during
years 10-13.
The remainder of tailings generated will be used as material for site reclamation, and for generation
of paste backfill for the underground mine.
Contact water will be collected in ditches and ponds and be used to provide mill make up water.
Surplus collected water will be discharged to the environment following water treatment, as required
to meet applicable water quality standards.
Capital and Operating Costs
Capital Costs
The total initial capital cost for the Project is estimated to be
$335 million
, including
$35 million
for
contingencies. Total sustaining costs are estimated to be
$217 million
over the life of the mine,
including closure costs and salvage values.
Mining initial capital costs were developed by SRK Consulting (
Canada
) Inc. based on the PFS mine
plan. Pre-production was assumed with an owner purchased and operated fleet with contract
haulage. Capital costs on leased mining equipment are represented in initial capital where the lease
payments or deposits occur within the project construction period and in sustaining capital where
they occur during the operating period.
Sustaining capital comprises primarily of underground development during operations, mining
equipment leases/purchases and site infrastructure relating to mining and TSF management.
Table 6: LOM Capital Costs
Initial Capital Costs
($ millions)
Mining equipment and Infrastructure
$16
Pre-production mining
$51
Processing Plant
$99
Infrastructure
$79
Project Indirects
$24
Project Delivery and Owners Costs
$31
Contingency
$35
Total Initial Capital
$335
Sustaining Capital Costs
($ millions)
Mining Equipment
$42
Underground Mine Development
$91
Mining Infrastructure
$23
TSF
$42
Closure and reclamation costs
$29
Salvage Value
($10)
Total Sustaining Capital
$217
Operating Costs
Mine operating costs are estimated to be
$4.22
/t mined (open pit) and
$61.23
/t mined
(underground), with unit costs estimated by SRK Mining Consulting (
Canada
) Inc. based on 2022
quotes and database costs. Processing costs have been estimated by Ausenco from first principles
using 2022 prices for reagents and other inputs. G&A costs are based on benchmark salaries for
staff and other costs from Ausenco databases. On-site accommodations and some warehousing
and general administrative office costs are not included in the estimates given the site's proximity to
the town of
Dryden, ON
, and the expectation that these services would be available locally.
Table 7: LOM Operating Cost
Item
Value
Units
Tonnes Mined, excluding pre-strip
131.4
Mt
Tonnes Milled, LOM
30.3
Mt
Payables Ounces
1.175
Moz
Mining Costs
$995
$4.22
$61.23
$32.83
C$M
C$/tonne mined (OP)
C$/tonne mined (UG)
C$/tonne milled
Processing & Water Treatment
$344
$11.34
C$M
C$/tonne milled
Mining Transportation
$119
$7.00
C$M
C$/tonne transported
G&A
$107
$3.54
C$M
C$/tonne milled
Total
$1,447
$47.71
C$M
C$/tonne milled
Au Off-Site Costs, Refining and Transport
$5.00
C$/oz
Silver Credit
$29
C$M
Royalties
$51
C$M
Total Cash Costs*
$935
US$/oz
Sustaining, Expansion, Closure Capital
$217
C$M
Total AISC*
$1,072
US$oz
*By-product basis. See notes on Non-IFRS Financial Measures
Financial Analysis
At a
US$1,750
gold price and a US$:C$ exchange rate of
$1.34
, the Project generates a post-tax
NPV of
$336 million
and a post-tax IRR of 25.4%. Payback on initial capital is 2.8 years. Pre-tax, the
NPV is
$469 million
, with a 29.3% IRR and a payback of 2.8 years. The valuation of the Project is
discounted to
July 1, 2023
.
At spot metals prices and exchange rates (
US$1,845
gold,
US$22.00
silver, US$:C$ exchange rate
of
$1.355
), the Project generates a post-tax NPV of
$425
, with a post-tax IRR of 30.1% and a 2.5
year payback period. Assuming a
US$1,550
gold price, the Project would generate a post-tax IRR
of 16.6% and generates a positive return on a post-tax basis above a gold price of
US$1,250
/ounce.
At the end of the capital period, the Project would have a post-tax NPV of
$711 million
at the base
case gold price.
The PFS assumes the Company exercises its right to repurchase 50% of the 2.2% Net Smelter
Returns Royalty that the Company sold to Sprott Resources Streaming and Royalty Corp for
US$20
million
in
April 2022
and 0.5% of the 1.5% Net Smelter Returns Royalty that the Company sold to
First Mining Gold Corp. in
August 2020
as part of the purchase of Tamaka Gold Corporation. In
addition, several other smaller royalties across the property package are assumed to be
repurchased. The cost of the repurchase of these royalties are excluded from project level economic
analysis.
Table 8: Sensitivity Analysis NPV and IRR
Gold Price $/oz
$1,550
$1,650
$1,750
$1,850
$1,950
Pre-tax NPV (C$M)
$244
$357
$469
$581
$693
Post-tax NPV (C$M)
$178
$257
$336
$414
$493
Pre-tax IRR
19.1 %
24.4 %
29.3 %
33.9 %
38.4 %
Post-tax IRR
16.6 %
21.1 %
25.4 %
29.6 %
33.5 %
Pre-tax payback (years)
3.7
3.2
2.8
2.5
2.3
Post-tax payback (years)
3.8
3.2
2.8
2.5
2.3
Table 9: Valuation Sensitivities to Certain Operating Parameters, post-tax, unlevered
-20 %
-10 %
0 %
10 %
20 %
Operating Cost
IRR
32.1 %
28.8 %
25.4 %
21.8 %
17.9 %
NPV (C$M)
$479
$407
$336
$264
$192
Initial Capital Cost
IRR
34.2 %
29.4 %
25.4 %
22.1 %
19.3 %
NPV (C$M)
$400
$368
$336
$303
$271
-10 %
-5 %
0 %
5 %
10 %
$C:$US F/X
IRR
NPV (C$M)
33.4%
$490
29.3%
$409
25.4%
$336
21.8%
$269
18.4%
$209
Environmental and Permitting Assessment
The Goliath Project, Goldlund Mine Project and Miller Project are three distinct project properties
and will go through their own permitting processes as each site is developed. The Goliath Project
site is prepared to move into the next permitting phase, which will be supported by the substantial
baseline information gathered during the environmental assessment process.
Environment baseline data collection for the Goldlund Mine Project and Miller Project sites was
initiated in 2021, which built upon basic scoping level aquatic information gathered in 2017. To date,
baseline environmental studies have been conducted addressing aspects of surface water quality,
aquatic resources (including sediment quality, benthic invertebrate community, fish community and
fish habitat), hydrology, hydrogeology and groundwater quality, terrestrial resources, and
geochemistry.
Provincial permitting will typically involve acquisition of environmental permits and approvals primarily
from the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP), the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Forestry (MNRF), and the Ministry of Mines (MINES). Typical provincial
environmental approvals are expected to be required for construction and operation of each of the
three Project sites, including: Mine Closure Plan; Forest Resource Licenses; Environmental
Compliance Approval – Industrial Sewage Works for contact water management, treatment and
discharge; Environmental Compliance Approval for air and noise emissions; Permits to Take Water;
Work Permits and Land Use Permits for construction of roads, water crossings, work on/near
shorelines and watercourse realignments.
A federal
Fisheries Act
Authorization and an amendment to Schedule 2 of the Metal and Diamond
Mining Effluent Regulations will be required for Goliath Project citing of site infrastructure and the
TSF.
As proposed in the PFS, the Goliath Mill ore input capacity has increased to the rate of
approximately 6,500 t/day. In consideration of the Impact Assessment Agency's Physical Activities
Regulation, Section 19, (c),(d), if mine and mill rates exceed 5,000 t/day, but the area of mine or mill
operations does not increase greater than 50%, a new environmental assessment is not required.
Community Consultations
The Company has actively engaged local and regional communities, First Nations and other
stakeholders to gain an understanding of their issues and interests, identify potential partnerships,
and build social acceptance for the three Projects. Stakeholders involved in Project consultations to
date include those with a direct interest in the Project, and those who provided data for the baseline
studies. The involvement of stakeholders will continue throughout the various Project stages.
Non-Indigenous public interest groups were identified as part of past, present and future consultation
and engagement efforts. This includes the
Village of Wabigoon
,
City of Dryden
,
Town of Sioux
Lookout
and other regional partners and stakeholders.
The three Project sites are located within the Treaty 3 (1873) area of
Ontario
, which affords hunting,
trapping and fishing rights and protections, and it has been shared with Treasury that there are
areas within the GGC property boundaries for the exercise of aboriginal and treaty rights. The
Company is committed to working collaboratively with Indigenous and regional communities to