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
Canada based gold and silver explorer Ascot Resources.

Project Description
An independent feasibility study has outlined a low-capital restart plan, 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 Northern Lights (PNL) and Red Mountain – feeding a centralised 2 500 t/d processing facility at the project. 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 PNL 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.

The project has an existing tailings storage facility (TSF) and water treatment plant. The independent feasibility study proposes two key enhancements to the existing infrastructure.

The first enhancement entails raising the tailings dam using centreline lifts throughout the mine life, with about 1.2-million cubic metres of nonacid-generating rock excavated from a nearby quarry.

The second enhancement entails modifying the water treatment plant to nearly double its 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
Capital costs, including mining costs, incurred as of December 31, 2023, are C$292-million. The remaining project construction capital required to achieve first gold pour is about C$47-million.

The total project capital cost will, thus, amount to C$339-million, which is slightly higher than the most recent total project budget of C$334-million reported in the third quarter.

Planned Start/End Date
Rock was introduced into the grinding circuit of the mill on March 31, 2024, and the first ore was introduced into the mill on April 5, 2024.

Latest Developments
Ascot Resources has closed the second and final tranche of a private placement, securing gross proceeds of C$61.1-million to support the advancement of its Premier gold project towards production.

The offering attracted strong support from major shareholders Ccori Apu and Equinox Partners. The financing was conducted in two tranches, with the first closing on March 14 and the second finalised this month.

The first tranche raised about C$42-million, with the sale of 142.6-million charity flow-through (CDE FT) units and 191.4-million hard dollar (HD) units. The second tranche added C$19.2-million through the issuance of 166.7-million HD units.

Following the transaction, Ccori Apu holds a 32.63% stake on a fully diluted basis, while Equinox Partners holds 14.97%. Equinox acquired 33.3-million HD units and indirectly 55.6-million CDE FT units – about 4.3-million HD units  fewer than previously disclosed.

Proceeds from the financing will be directed primarily towards development of the Premier project and for general corporate purposes.

The financing move follows for a recent announcement by Ascot regarding a delay in the restart of milling operations at the project. Initially expected to start processing ore earlier, operations are now scheduled to start in July, owing to slower-than-expected underground development, attributed to a shortage of skilled labour.

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); Farnell-Thompson Applied Technologies (semiautogenous grinding mill ball mills and related parts); and Procon Mining & Tunnelling (underground mining services).

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