Successful junior Kaminak Gold did the early work on the Coffee gold project, finding and outlining a substantial gold reserve and completing a feasibility study.
The study, released in early 2016, pegged preproduction capital costs at $291 million, sustaining costs and closure at $445 million, and included a $33 million (11%) contingency. That put the total capex at $1.6 billion.
Coffee could pay back its development costs after taxes in only 2 years.
The feasibility study attracted the attention of several larger miners. But it was Goldcorp who acquired Kaminak for $520 million in July 2016.
Coffee will be a high grade, open pit, heap leach development and Goldcorp expects to begin production in 2021, in time to form a key part of its plan to increase total production by 20% by 2021.
Goldcorp is advancing the project on all fronts. In April, a collaboration agreement was signed with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in. The Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Board deemed the Coffee project adequate in August 2018, and public consultation was completed in November.
Meanwhile, permitting and engineering continues. There is a road as well as the mine to be permitted, and that work has just begun. Construction is expected to start in 2020.
* For more information on this facility, contacts and/or project requirements or to subscribe – contact: sales@menex.biz or visit our website at www.menex.biz