Midway Gold, which controls a series of four projects in Nevada, including the Pan (resources of 1.13kM oz. Au M&I, reserves of 864k oz. Au P&P) and its sister project Gold Rock (resources of 310k oz. Au indicated) just 5 miles away (both in the Pancake Range of western White Pine County), reported exciting news today out of the Pan project, as a formal groundbreaking ceremony has been held to commemorate the start of mine construction.
The company's impressive Nevada footprint just keeps expanding and with bonding secured for construction/mining at Pan, a Q3 completion target for construction (fully permitted with EIS validated Dec 20, 2013 via BLM Record of Decision) paves the way for MDW to easily satisfy their initial 2014 production estimate. Equipment is on-site and they have already started moving dirt for the first constructions, with the fully-permitted power line going up in concert.
Chairman, President and CEO of MDW, Kenneth A. Brunk, clearly proud of the project characteristics, described the groundbreaking as an opportunity for the company to formally acknowledge those who have driven the process through permitting and development, bringing this exceptionally low-cost Carlin-style deposit to the milestone stage of mine construction. With the 2011 NI 43-101 and subsequent press release (Nov 15, 2011) showing that this shallow open-pittable deposit, which can simply be heap leached for optimum cost metrics, has cherry NPV of $123M, even at $1200 gold, we have an IRR of 32%, or as much as 79% ($344M NPV) if the yellow metal gets back up to around $1900 an ounce (both figures are after-tax, see above linked Nov 15 article).
Brunk noted past expressions, specifically to the permitting team, of MDW's gratitude for their superb work and again underscored both the quality of the science being done, as well as the team's diligence. Brunk gave credit where credit is due, pointing directly to those who have allowed MDW to maintain such enviable momentum with the Pan project's development. Brunk also tipped his hat to former President and CEO of the company, Alan Branham, for his vision and instincts with the Pan project's acquisition. Metallurgical run-of-mine (ROM) testing from back in September of 2013 at Pan showed good results, with the Kappes-Cassidy & Associates laboratories out of Reno handing back 4-foot diameter column, 20k pound ROM ore testing results (simulating ROM leaching operation) showing 92% recovery at 58 days. These are quite impressive results and the exceptional porosity/permeability of the rock appears to be ideal for leaching, very bullish indicators overall for the Pan Mine's long-term upside.
You tack the Pan upside onto MDW's Spring Valley deposit (2.16M oz. Au M&I) over in Pershing County, where sector juggernaut Barrick is footing 100% of the costs to land a 60% earn in (another $8M expenditure highly probable by Barrick to pick up another 10% by Dec. 31 of this year, with completion expected well ahead of schedule sometime this quarter), as well as their Tonopah project (just over 34l oz. Au inferred) in Nye County, and the company is looking really solid for future production in Nevada. MDW also controls the exploration-stage Golden Eagle project (over 1.74M oz. Au indicated) in Washington State's Ferry County, up in the northwest region on some private land.
Extensive portfolio-wide acreage with over 5M oz. M&I, independent NI 43-101 technical data, deals with sector giant Barrick, experienced management who has seen all sides of the industry and now their first million-ounce project rocketing to production in 2014 all adds up to MDW becoming a serious contender.
More info on Midway Gold Corp. is available at MidwayGold.com
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