by @nasdaq on 7 Sep 2021, 06:00

Probe Metals Announces Positive PEA for Val-d’Or East Project; Average Annual Production of 207,000 ounces, After-Tax NPV5% of C$598M, and IRR of 32.8%

Highlights:

• Robust economics with after-tax net present value (“NPV”) (discount rate 5%) of C$598M, internal rate of return (“IRR”) of 32.8% and payback of 2.7 years estimated with gold price of US$1,500 per ounce
• 12.5 year mine life producing 2.58 Million ounces of gold
• Average annual gold production of 207,000 ounces over life of mine (“LOM”), with an average of 231,000 ounces per year in the first eight years
• Average cash cost of US$786/oz and all-in sustaining (“AISC”) cost of US$965/oz gold
• Initial Capital Expenditure of C$353M
• Mill capacity of 10,000 tonnes per day (3.65M tonnes per annum) with average gold recovery of 94.7%
• Over 71% of mineable ounces coming from Beliveau and Monique deposits
• 73% of gold production mined from open pits and 27% extracted from underground operations
• Project is now advancing towards pre-feasibility, including an aggressive drilling program to upgrade and expand the gold resources

TORONTO, Sept. 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Probe Metals Inc. (TSX-V: PRB) (“Probe” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce positive results from the independent Preliminary Economic Assessment (“PEA”) for its 100% owned Val-d’Or East project (the “Project”) located near Val-d’Or, Québec. The PEA provides a base case assessment of developing the Val-d’Or East mineral resource by open pit and underground mining, and gold recovery with a standard free milling flowsheet, incorporating gravity and leaching of the gravity tails, with 50% estimated to be recovered via gravity. The economic model supports an operation with low capital cost and high rate of return over a 12.5-year mine life, with significant average annual production of 207,000 ounces. The PEA was prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc. (“Ausenco”) in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 – Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (“NI 43-101”).

David Palmer, President and CEO of Probe, states, “Our goal for Probe Metals has always been to find a project that could sustain profitable mining operations of 200,000 gold ounces per year for a minimum of 10 years. We are very pleased to say that we have not only been successful in achieving that goal, but that we have actually exceeded it with Val-d’Or East. The current PEA shows that Val-d’Or East is a large, sustainable mining project that is highly leveraged to gold price and can produce over 200,000 ounces of gold a year for at least 12.5 years, with an average of over 230,000 ounces a year in the first eight years. To have a project like this in Canada is remarkable, but to have a project like this in an established mining camp like Val-d’Or, which still has tremendous exploration upside and growth potential is even more rare. We have explored less than 15% of our property and will be accelerating our programs to capture this exploration upside while continuing to increase confidence in the resource. We will continue advancing the project on all fronts as we build Val-d’Or East into one of the preeminent Canadian development stories.”

Yves Dessureault, COO of Probe, states, “We are extremely pleased at the results of our first PEA on the Val-d’Or East project. It has exceeded all of our expectations in terms of size, annual production, initial capital costs and financial returns such as NPV and IRR. It truly is one of the more robust development projects in Canada, and being situated in the heart of mining infrastructure, 25 kilometres from downtown Val-d’Or and directly linked to power and rail, provides us with low execution risk. The project has performed extremely well in initial planning and we see many opportunities to further improve upon this study as we advance into the next phase of work. We also see potential for this project to be a leader in environmental and socially responsible mining, with low environmental impact, ore sorting, use of dry stacked tailings and access to green electricity for electrification of mining operations being just a few of the initiatives we will be working on. We look forward to unlocking further value as we progress Val-d’Or East towards development.”

Full NR: https://www.probemetals.com/news/2021/probe-metals-announces-positive-pea-for-val-dor-east-project-average-annual-production-of-207-000-ounces-after-tax-npv5-of-c/