Area of the Soto Norte gold project. Photo by Minesa.
Aris Mining (TSX: ARIS) (NYSE-A: ARMN) has released a prefeasibility study (PFS) for its Soto Norte gold project in Colombia, outlining the characteristics of both a profitable and environmentally friendly mine operation. Its shares rose on the news.
The PFS, using a base case gold price of $2,600/oz., gave Soto Norte a 22-year initial mine life with total production of 4.3 million oz. gold, 18.8 million oz. silver and 84 million lb. copper. The metals will be mined from an underground reserve base of 20 million tonnes grading 7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold, 32.1 g/t silver and 0.2% copper.
From this production profile, the study calculated an after-tax net present value (at 5% discount) of $2.7 billion, an internal rate of return of 35.4%, and a payback of 2.3 years from the start of operations. The initial capital is pegged at $625 million, while…
