Positive Results At Livengood Gold Project
VANCOUVER, BC - International Tower Hill Mines Ltd. reported results of an independently prepared Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) for the Livengood gold project, Alaska.
The combined milling/heap leach PEA is based the Company's resource estimate and produced a positive economic analysis for the conceptual project. Significantly the PEA demonstrated a life of project average annual production of 504,000 recovered ounces of gold for 21 years, at a 1:1.07 strip ratio (ore to waste). Livengood Project Highlights: 13.6 million ounce in-pit resource deposit with potential for over 500,000 ounces per year of production; Good infrastructure and favourable jurisdiction positively impacting development costs; Excellent potential to expand the existing deposit, upgrade in-pit resource and make new discoveries within the district; Favourable mining geometry and a low strip ratio; Potential to increase production rates substantially in future mining design with larger throughput facilities and mining fleet to maximize economies of scale; High recovery of gold to gravity and flotation concentrates reducing processing costs and tailings infrastructure capital costs; Existing highly competent and experienced labor force available in the local area. Jeffrey Pontius President and CEO said, "These initial results from the integration of the updated resource estimate and the inclusion of milling into the production plan have highlighted the project's key drivers: high annual gold production, low ore to waste strip ratio, and high leverage to gold price with an early heap leach start-up component prior to mill construction. In addition, the study identified a number of opportunities to significantly add value, which include assessing increased ore production rates to reduce the current long mine life, adding certainty to reduce the current 25% contingency on capital cost and improving the mining sequencing to reduce operational cost. In addition, our ongoing exploration has good potential to both expand the deposit and discover new deposits within the district." This PEA utilized preliminary estimates of heap leach and mill recovery, assuming a nominal 76% and 81% process recovery, respectively. This estimated mill recovery is consistent with the high average recovery (89%) of gold to concentrate demonstrated in the existing metallurgical testing data and the subsequent total gold recovery by CIL treatment in some of the ore types. Extensive metallurgical testing will be conducted as part of a Pre-feasibility Study to verify the total gold recovery assumptions and to support design of the required mill and heap leach processes. Carl Brechtel, Chief Operating Officer said, "The positive results from this economic assessment will form the conceptual foundation of the Livengood project design, which is projected to consist of a large open pit mine supplying ore to both a large mill using gravity and flotation concentration and a heap leach pad with associated gold recovery circuit. The authors of this most recent PEA will continue on as key external members of the Company's Owner Team, providing continuity in the transition to the Pre-feasibility Study. The Pre-feasibility Study will address a number of optimization and enhancement opportunities to continue to improve and grow the project." The company's address is Suite 1920, 1188 West Georgia St., Vancouver, BC V6E 4A2, 604-683-6332.