Name of the Project
Premier gold project (PGP).

Location
British Columbia, Canada, adjacent to the border with Alaska, in the US, in the Golden Triangle gold mining district.

Project Owner/s
Gold and silver explorer Ascot Resources.

Project Description
An independent feasibility study has outlined a low capital restart plan for the PGP, based on a proven and probable reserve of 6.2-million tonnes grading 5.9 g/t gold and 19.7 g/t gold.

The study is based on four underground mining operations – Silver Coin, Big Missouri, Premier and Red Mountain – feeding a centralised 2 500 t/d processing facility at PGP. The mining operations will be sequenced over eight years to initially produce 1.1-million ounces of gold and three-million ounces of silver.

Mining will start from the Silver Coin and Big Missouri deposits, which will be followed by the Red Mountain deposit in Year 3, and then the Premier deposit.

In the four planned operations, access for production will be through new and existing adits (side hill portal access) using a combination of new ramp development and the refurbishment of existing underground infrastructure.

Mining methods will largely comprise low-cost longhole stoping for most of the ore, with limited use of inclined undercut longhole, room-and-pillar and cut-and-fill mining methods in specific shallow or flat-lying stopes. Ore will be trucked to the processing facility and mining waste will be used underground as a combination of rockfill and cemented rockfill.

The existing processing facility will be refurbished within a construction period of about 40 weeks. The process plant will use conventional crushing, grinding and gravity circuits, followed by a stan­dard carbon-in-leach process to produce gold doré.

The plant refurbishment will comprise a com­bi­na­tion of existing, new and repaired equipment and supporting plant infrastructure. Prior to ore from the Red Mountain project being treated, the plant will add an energy efficient, fine grinding mill, as well as an additional preleach thickener, to accommodate the processing of harder-ore feed and the finer grind required for recovery purposes.

PGP has an existing tailings storage facility and water treatment plant. The independent feasi­bility study proposes two key enhancements to the exist­ing infrastructure:

• the tailings dam will be raised using centreline lifts throughout the mine life, with about 1.2-million cubic metres of nonacid-generating rock excavated from a nearby quarry; and

• the water treatment plant will be modified to nearly double the existing capacity to accom­modate additional water treatment from the Big Missouri and Silver Coin operations, and will also include an ammonia treatment plant, a water clarifier and a lime high-density sludge system.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The April 2020 feasibility study highlighted an after-tax net present value (NPV), at a 5% discount rate, of C$341-million and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 51% at $1 400/oz gold.

The project has an estimated after-tax NPV, at a 5% discount rate, of $546-million and an IRR of 73% at current gold prices of $1 740/oz gold.

Capital Expenditure
C$224-million.

Planned Start/End Date
The first gold pour would be in early 2023.

Latest Developments
Ascot Gold announced a 27% increase in the capital cost estimate for its Premier project in January 2022, citing higher indirect costs caused by schedule delays, weather impacts and supply chain pressures. 

The Premier project will now cost C$224-million, compared with a previous estimate of C$176-million.

Ascot reported that it had spent a total of C$60-million on the project and still had to spend C$164-million to complete the project. With total liquidity of C$153-million, the company faces a financing gap and will “pursue additional funding options in the near future”.

CEO Derek White is confident in Ascot’s ability to execute on the remainder of the project construction during 2022.

“We are excited to get the Premier mill restarted . . . The Golden Triangle of north-western British Columbia has been a focal point for Canadian mining mergers and acquisitions in recent years, and Ascot has one of only three mills in the entire region,” he has said.

Ascott announced a schedule delay for the project in December 2021, after it had paused outdoor construction activities and underground development during the winter. The firm also had to order replacements for components that got lost at sea.

Ascot has stated that it will ramp up full-scale construction activities in April this year, with the first gold pour expected next year.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
Sacre-Davey Engineering (overall coordination, infrastructure and the economic evaluation in the independent feasibility study); InnovExplo Inc and Mine Paste (mining); Sedgman Canada (metallurgy and processing); Knight Piésold (tailings and water management); SRK Consulting (water treatment plant); Paul Hughes Consulting (site geotechnical); McElhanney (access roads); Prime Engineering (electrical substation); Palmer Environmental Consulting Group (geochemistry, hydrology and water quality modelling); Falkirk Environmental Consultants and EcoLogic Consultants (environmental studies); and Farnell-Thompson Applied Technologies SAG ball mills and related parts).

Contact Details for Project Information
Ascot Resources, tel +1778725 1060 or email info@ascotgold.com.