MONETA GOLD's Tower Gold Project Advancing its combined open pit and underground mining project

If you’re looking for a perfect recipe to bake a mine, look no further than the ingredients on the kitchen counter of Moneta Gold. Ontario’s oldest-listed mining stock is in the middle of a great jurisdiction; they’ve got a great property; excellent drill results; and an Ontario government anxious to fast track promising projects.
Moneta Gold has been listed by major mining publications as one of the “juniors to watch” and for good reason.
Recently, the company announced assay results from seventeen (17) drill holes from infill drilling on the Windjammer gold deposit at the Tower Gold project, 100 kilometres east of Timmins. The drilling was conducted as part of the current 70,000 metres infill and resource upgrade drill program on the recently announced mineral resource estimate of 4.5 million ounces indicated gold and 8.3 million oz of inferred silver at the Tower Gold project.
“These latest assay results from Windjammer infill drilling continue to confirm the continuity and extensions of the current mineral resource estimate, only just updated in September,” said Gary O’Connor, Moneta’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  
“These results support wide widths of gold mineralization within the open pit mineral resources and affirm extensions of mineralization outside the resource to the east and at depth. As we continue to advance and de-risk the Tower Gold project, we look forward to completing the resource infill and upgrade drill program in preparation of the planned Pre-Feasibility Study and releasing additional results from the drill program as they become available.”
It’s all good news for O’Connor and his team as they move closer and closer to a production decision.
In September, the company released its highly anticipated Preliminary Economic Assessment.
“We’re very pleased with the results of this PEA, which has outlined a strong base-case for a significant and highly profitable new gold mine in Ontario,” said O’Connor.  
“Our robust base case at US$1,600 per ounce gold price for the project supports a 24-year mine life with average annual production of 261,014 ounces of gold for the first 11 years with an after-tax NPV of $1,066 million and IRR of 31.7%, with very attractive cash costs and AISC, low CAPEX and low capital intensity. This PEA confirms the potential for a robust gold project with compelling project economics and represents an important interim update on the progress of our work program at Tower Gold. In 2022, we will continue to focus on in-fill and definition drilling to better define resources and improve the economics of the resource through increasing grades and lowering strip ratios, while also identifying new targets.”

Open pit mine life 24 years

 

Windjammer

Infill drilling at Windjammer was focused on infilling and extending the wide stacked extensional quartz veins hosting the current open pit gold resource from surface to vertical depths of up of 500 m below surface at Windjammer Central. The drill results confirmed continuity of the resource estimate and extended gold mineralization to the east and at depth.
The Windjammer open pit currently hosts an indicated resource of 42.05 million tonnes (“Mt”) @ 0.78 g/t Au containing 1,058,000 oz gold and an inferred resource of 34.46 Mt @ 0.97 g/t Au containing 1,074,000 oz gold at Windjammer South and 28.50 Mt @ 0.63 g/t Au for 581,000 oz gold indicated and 77.83 Mt @ 0.64 g/t Au for 1,595,000 oz gold inferred at Windjammer Central.
The Tower Gold project will consist of the extraction of two separate areas: Golden Highway and Garrison. Golden Highway consists of the mineral deposits Westaway, Southwest, 55, and Windjammer, while Garrison encompasses Garrcon, 903, and Jonpol. The overall strategy is to mine the deposits in two phases using a combination of open pit and underground mining to achieve a total annual production rate of 7.0 million tonnes.
The mineral resources used in the mine plan are contained in the seven mineral deposits over a length of 12 kilometres and span from surface down to a vertical depth of approximately 1,100 metres (“m”). The Westaway and South West deposits are characterized by multiple mineral corridors striking NW and dip sub-vertically and steeply to the west. The deposits have potential for open pit and underground mining.
The Tower Gold project will be extracted with a combination of open pit mining for mineralization closer to surface, and underground mining for mineralization at depth. The combined output of both mines will be 166.4 million tonnes (“Mt”) at an average grade of 0.94 g/t Au. The open pit mine will be responsible for 158.2 Mt at a grade of 0.81 g/t Au over an open pit life of 24 years, while the underground mine will contribute 8.2 Mt at a grade of 3.42 g/t Au over an underground mine life of 12 years. The Table on page 12 illustrates the mineral deposits each mine will extract.
The underground mine will be accessed through a single portal from surface leading to Westaway and South West via the main ramp of size 5.5 m width (“W”) x 5.8 m height (“H”) and at a slope gradient of 1:7. The mining method selected is longitudinal sublevel long-hole open stoping with minimum dimensions of 20 m L x 3 m W x 25 m H. Mineralized material will be extracted by ramp using a fleet of 50 tonne haul trucks at an average peak mine production rate of 900,000 tpa. Paste-fill will be used to backfill mined stopes.
Moneta is a Canadian-based gold exploration company focused on advancing its 100% wholly owned Tower Gold project, in the Timmins region of Northeastern Ontario, Canada’s most prolific gold producing camp. The September 2022, Preliminary Economic Assessment study outlined a combined open pit and underground mining and a 7.0 million tonne per annum conventional leach/CIL operation over a 24-year mine life, with 4.6 Moz of recovered gold, generating an after-tax NPV5% of $1,066M, IRR of 31.7%, and a 2.6-year payback at a gold price US$1,600/oz. Tower Gold hosts an estimated gold mineral resource of 4.5 Moz indicated, and 8.3 Moz inferred.
Moneta is committed to creating shareholder value through the strategic allocation of capital and a focus on the current resource upgrade drilling program, while conducting all business activities in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

For this article and more visit the digital copy of: The Northern Ontario Mining Report

 

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