Canadian miner Artemis Gold has unveiled the results of its 2021 feasibility study (FS) for the staged development of the company’s Blackwater gold project in central British Columbia, Canada. The results of the Study supersede the 2020 Prefeasibility Study (PFS), the firm said in a statement.
Based on the study’s results, “Phase 1 throughput has been expanded 9% to 6 million tonnes per annum … with a larger crushing circuit, provid-ing greater operational throughput upside potential in the early years, up from 5.5Mtpa in the 2020 PFS,” according to the statement. “Phase 2 ex-pansion begins with an expansion to 9Mtpa in year 5 (up from 5.5Mtpa in year 5 in the 2020 PFS), ramping up to 12Mtpa in year 6. Phase 3 expan-sion begins with an expansion to 15Mtpa in year 10 (up from 12Mtpa in year 10 in the 2020 PFS), ramping up to 20Mtpa in year 11”.
The latest study outlines an initial development capital cost of C$645 mil-lion (US$510 million) to develop a 6 million tonnes per year Phase 1 open pit mining and processing operation.