Belvedere Announces Positive PEA on Their Kopsa Gold Copper Project
October 02 2013 - 4:34PM
Marketwired Canada
Belvedere Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE:BEL) (the "Company") is pleased to
announce the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on their 100%
owned Kopsa gold copper project. The study has been prepared by SRK Consulting
(Sweden) AB and is compliant with Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and
Petroleum (CIM) definitions and guidelines of National Instrument 43-101 and
accompanying documents 43-101F1 and 43-101CP.
Highlights (pre-tax and pre-finance) of the Base Case Model(i)
-- Net Present Value (8%) of US$38.6 million
-- Internal Rate of Return of 47.6%
-- Gross Revenue of US$ 282 million
-- Undiscounted Cashflow of US$66 million
-- Life of Mine (LoM) 9 years at peak rate of 1.2 Mtpa
-- LoMCapital costs of US$ 48.3 million (owner operator model and 25%
contingency)
-- LoM Operating Costs of $700/ozgold equivalence (tozAuEq)
-- LoM stripping ratio of 0.63 (waste to run of mine tonnes)
-- Annual average production of 27,000 oz'sgold and 1,050 tonnes (2.3
million pounds) of copper at average operating cost of $645/tozAuEqover
the first six years
-- LoM production of 196,000 oz's of gold and 8,200 t (18.1 million pounds)
of copperat a mined grade of 0.91 g/t Au and 0.15% copper
(i) Base Case Model has been calculated using: gold price of USD 1,200 /toz;
copper price of USD 6,000 /tonne; silver price of USD 20 /toz; discount rate of
8%; USD:EUR exchange rate of 0.75. The mining schedule envisages co-processing
intermediate ore stockpile in the final 3 years. The operating costs $/tozAuEq
are calculated by Total Operating Costs / ($1,200 / Gross Revenues (including
by-products)).
Production and Processing Summary
It is currently envisaged that Kopsa is to be mined by conventional open pit
methods using an excavator-truck configuration at an annual rate of 1.2
Mtpaand,following on-site sorting, transportation of material to Belvedere's
Hitura processing facilities,which are located approximately 19 km via sealed
road from the deposit. The project has an extremely low life of mine stripping
ratio of 0.63 tonnes of waste to 1 tonne of run of mine material.
The Base Case scenario entails on-site crushing and sorting based on X-ray
transmission (XRT) technology, which reduces the amount of ore to be trucked to
and processed at the Hitura Mill. The Hitura mill until recently processed
nickel sulphide ore at a nominal annual throughput rate of 600 ktpa.In order to
treat Kopsa ore, the flotation circuit would be configured to produce two
sulphide concentrates, a marketable copper sulphide concentrate, containing some
gold and silver, and a bulk sulphide concentrate. The bulk sulphide
concentratewould be cyanide leached for the recovery of gold and silver followed
by a conventional Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) / Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) recovery,
producing a smelted gold/silver dore onsite.
Capital and Operating Costs
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SUMMARY CAPITAL COSTS M EURO M USD
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Mining 13.4 17.9
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Processing 5.4 7.2
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Tailings & WRD 7.1 9.5
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Environmental 3.1 4.1
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Contingency 25% 7.3 9.7
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Total 36.2 48.3
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Table 1Summary of PEA Capital Costs. Euros converted from USD at 0.75EUR/USD
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SUMMARY OPERATING COSTS M EURO M USD
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Mining 65.2 86.9
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Processing 37.6 50.2
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Tailings 6.7 8.9
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Environmental & Closure 2.6 3.5
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G&A 5.4 7.3
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Contingency 5% 5.9 7.8
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Total 123.5 164.6
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SUMMARY UNIT OPERATING COSTS EURO USD
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Cost/tonne Moved (LoM) 8.3 11.1
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Cost/tonne Milled (LoM) 39.0 52.0
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Cost/tozAuEq (LoM) 525 700
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Table 2: Summary of PEA Operating Costs. Euros converted from USD at 0.75EUR/USD
Mineral Resource Estimate
As part of the PEA, SRK has estimated a Mineral Resource estimatefor the Kopsa
deposit.A pit optimisation exercise was carried out based on assumed operating
costs, slope angles, mining recoveries and revenue assumptions derived during
course of the PEA, and was used to constrain the Mineral Resource to that
material which SRK considers has reasonable prospect for eventual economic
extraction.
The statement has been classified in accordance with the CIM Definitions by the
Qualified Persons, who are independent consultants employed by SRK consulting,
with no current or prior relationship to Belvedere other than in the capacity of
independent consultants.
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Category Tonnes (Mt) Au (g/t) Cu (%) AuEq (g/t) Ag (g/t)
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Measured 11.5 0.83 0.15 1.07 2.17
Indicated 2.2 0.70 0.15 0.95 2.08
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Measured+Indicated 13.6 0.81 0.15 1.05 2.15
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Inferred 2.7 0.8 0.2 1.1 2.57
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Table 3Mineral Resource Statement (reported above a marginal cut-off grade of
0.5 g/t AuEq and within the Whittle shell). Effective Date 2nd October, 2013
Important Cautionary Note Relating to Results of PEA
The economic analysis performed by SRK for the purpose of the PEA, is based only
on Measured and Indicated Resources. Despite no Inferred resources being
included, the economic analysis is still preliminary in nature, and only
indicates the potentialtechnical and economic viability of the project. The
technical and economic viability of the project has not yet been demonstrated.
Conversion of the Measured and Indicated Resources into Mineral Reserves would
require the support of a pre-feasibility level study. There is no certainty that
the reserves development, or production and economic forecasts on which this
Preliminary Economic Assessment is based will be realised.
Qualified Persons
The results disclosed in this news release are based upon the PEA study
"Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Kopsa Copper-Gold Deposit, Finland"
which includes an updated Mineral Resource Estimate. The PEA, Mineral Resource
Estimateand this news release were prepared under the supervision of Johan
Bradley (MSc, FGS CGeol, EurGeol) Principal Geologist and Managing Director of
SRK Consulting (Sweden) AB; and Dr Mike Armitage (BSc, MIMMM, FGS, CEng), Group
Chairman and Corporate Consultant (Mining Geology), SRK (UK) Ltd., who are
fulfilling the role of Independent Qualified Persons as defined in Sections 1.1
and 1.5 of National Instrument 43-101
Data Verification
In order to independently verify Belvedere's drill database, during the site
visit, Johan Bradley (QP) carried out:
-- An inspection of several drill collars at the Kopsa site to confirm
location of these;
-- Drill core inspection of nine Belvedere holes with good spatial
representation across the deposit, cross-checking geology,
mineralization, sample interval and sample numbers against the Company's
drill database; and
-- Collection of 44 coarse reject samples for check assaying. These samples
were selected by SRK on the basis of their spatial and temporal
representivity.
The number of collars located in the field, drill cores reviewed and check
samples selected for assay by the QP represents a small proportion of the
overall number of drill collars and analysis carried out on the Project as a
whole. Notwithstanding this, no material errors were found during the course of
these checks, addingto SRK's confidence in Belvedere'sdrillhole database and the
repeatability of the assay methods used.
Further Information Relating to Mineral Resource Estimate
SRK created a geological model based on a statistical review of the validated
drillhole data. Two domains were outlined by SRK - an Au-rich and a Cu-rich
domain. These domains were created based on statistical grade breaks with a
0.08% Cu, and 0.2 g/t Au cut-off being utilised to delineate the domains. It was
not possible to model the individual high-grade Au veins due to the current
drill spacing and nature of the mineralization.
A 2 m composite file was used in a geostatistical study (variography and
quantitative kriging neighbourhood analysis - QKNA) that resulted in ordinary
kriging (OK) being selected as the interpolation method. The interpolation used
an elliptical search following the predominant dip and dip direction of the
geological domains. The results of the variography and the QKNA were utilised to
determine the most appropriate search parameters for each domain.
A block model consisting of 10m x 10m x 5m blocks was created, with Au and Cu
being interpolated into the model using OK, and Ag, As and S interpolated using
Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). Tonnages were estimated based on a specific
gravity (SG) of 2.73 g/cm3, which was determined from 1,650 density measurements
within the mineralised zone.
The interpolated block model was validated through visual checks, a comparison
of the mean composite and block grades and through the generation of section
validation slices. SRK is confident that the interpolated grades are a
reasonable reflection of the available sample data.
A pit optimisation exercise was carried out based on assumed operating costs,
slope angles, mining recoveries and revenue assumptions derived by SRK during
course of the PEA, and was used to constrain the Mineral Resource to that
material which SRK considers has reasonable prospect for eventual economic
extraction. The Mineral Resource reported for Kopsa was constrained within a
Lerchs-Grossman pit shell defined by a marginal cut-off-grade of 0.50 g/t AuEq,
a metal price for copper USD 7,865 /tonne and metal price for gold USD1,508 /
oz; overall slope angles of 45 degrees and 50 degrees for the footwall and
hangingwallrespectively; a mining recovery of 97%; a mining dilution of 5%;
mining costs of USD3.5/tonne,process operating costs of USD13/tonne processed
materialinclude G&A costs; and a transport cost of USD5.6/tonne.
Gold equivalence (AuEq) calculations were based on using forecast long term
metal prices (as above) and assumed recoveries. The following calculation was
used to assign AuEq values to each block:
AuEq (g/t) = 0.982830(i)Au (g/t) + 1.672011(i)Cu (%)
The Qualified Personsare not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal,
title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues that would
preclude the reporting of the Mineral Resource given here.
Further Information Relating to PEA
SRK has utilised a number of assumptions for the purposes of the PEA. Full
details will be provided in the Technical Report to be filed on SEDAR. The main
assumptions are summarised below.
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Item Unit Base Case
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Gold Price USD/troy oz 1,200
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Copper Price USD/tonne 6,000
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Silver Price USD/troy oz 20
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Discount Rate 8%
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RoM Production tpa 1,200,000
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Delivery to Plant 420,000
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Sorting Loss Cu % 25
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Au % 10
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Flotation Feed Grade Cu % 0.32
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Au g/t 2.34
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Copper Concentrate tpa 4,800
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Cu Rec % 80
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Au Rec % 40
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Cu % 22.5
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Au g/t 82
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Sulphide Concentrate tpa 12,600
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Au Rec % 44.75
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Au g/t 35
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Cyanidation Recovery Au % 95
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Recovery to Dore Au % 42.5
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Overall Recovery Cu % 60
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Au % 76.3
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Table 4: Summary of key assumptions for PEA
Filing of PEA on SEDAR
A NI 43-101 Technical Report titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the
Kopsa Copper-Gold Deposit, Finland" and dated 2nd October, 2013 will be filed on
SEDAR within 45 days to support this news release.
Forward Looking Statement:
Some of the statements contained herein may be forward-looking statement, which
involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Without limitation,
statements regarding the future economics or development of the Kopsa project,
and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward looking statements
that involve various degrees of risk. It is important to note that the Company's
actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking
statements.
BELVEDERE RESOURCES LTD.
David Pym, CEO; Suite #404, Vancouver World Trade Centre, 999 Canada Place,
Vancouver, BC V6C 3E2, Canada
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term
is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for
the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
Belvedere Resources Ltd.
David Pym
CEO
+1-604-844-2838
Belvedere Resources Ltd.
Toby Strauss
COO
+1-604-844-2838
www.belvedere-resources.com
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