Excellent update by Metanor as the title "Near Term Producer" is about to change. With gold so high the margins are exceptional, especialy with news of very large margin cost cuts to pad bottom line and upgrades almost complete so they can be an unhedged gold producer.
News Source: biz.yahoo.com
Review Source: miningmarketwatch.net
-- News Copy --
Metanor - Update of the Work Completed on the Barry and Bachelor Properties
Thursday November 8, 9:30 am ET
TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE (equal sign)MTO 60,800,974 shares
VAL-D'OR, QC, Nov. 8 /CNW Telbec/ - Metanor Resources Inc. (MTO: TSX-V) is pleased to provide an update of the work carried out on the Barry and Bachelor properties located in the north of Quebec, and comments on the recommendations from the Preliminary Economic Study carried out by Géostat International Inc. (Press release of October 30, 2007).
In spring 2007, Géostat International Inc, was retained by Métanor to prepare an economic study whose objective was to evaluate the economic potential to exploit the deposit of Barry by open-pit mine and using the rehabilitated mill at Bachelor. This economic study, whose results are positive, was initiated last spring and was delivered to Métanor October 16, 2007.
During the preparation of this study, the majority of its final recommendations were already being carried out by Métanor who invested close to $12M on the rehabilitation of the Bachelor Mill and the preparation of Bulk Sampling at Barry.
The work executed so far by Métanor at Bachelor and Barry includes:
<<
- The Repair of the External Infrastructure of the Bachelor Mill,
including the coating and the insulation, which was completed a few
months ago.
- The Restoration of the Components of the Bachelor Mill (mechanical and
electrical) is 95% completed. Métanor has even begun the commissioning
of the internal components of the initial circuit of the mill made up
of the crushers, ball mill and the conveyors bringing the material
towards the ore bin.
- On the Barry Property, the Preparation of the Site and the Installation
of Surface Buildings (Service, warehouse, etc) are completed. The
original stripped zone was extended significantly and Bulk Sampling has
been underway for a few weeks. The first blasts made it possible to
establish the starting point of Bulk Sampling and other blasts of mill
feed are regularly being carried out. The broken ore is crushed
immediately and stored on the site.
- The Repair work of the road connecting Bachelor to the Barry site
(which uses the principal roads of Domtar) is finished and is ready for
the transport of the mill feed.
>>
This study depicts a scenario of operation with very conservative parameters such as only 63% of the total resources were used in its calculation. Further, this economic study's income was calculated using a price of $660 CAD/oz and still shows positive conclusions as to the profitability of the project.
Other factors not taken into consideration in this study include:
The potential resources were evaluated by InnovExplo inc., in a NI 43-101 technical report, dated of October 31, 2005 as follows: measured and indicated resources of 841,591 t at 7.79 g/t Au (or 210,857 oz of gold) and inferred resources of 426,148 t at 6.52 g/t Au (or 89,366 oz of gold). Several mineralized zones were not included in the study: zone A and C of Bachelor property, and the zones A and B as well as portions of the East Zone and the West Zone of Hewfran property. From a total of 212,300 T of measured resources calculated by Innovexplo in 2005 at Bachelor, only 84,477 T (40%) were used. Therefore, a greater total of 477,930 T (110,298 ounces of gold) representing 37% of the total resources was not used at the time of this study.
During the preparation of this study, Métanor repurchased 7% of the NSR from Murgor on the Barry deposit (Press release of September 6, 2007), and this was not factored in this study.
The study used very high costs of operation however most of these costs will be decreased. For example, this study uses 27 peoples that would be necessary to operate the mill but Métanor budgets only 15 due to automation, this represents an appreciable savings. A feasibility study has not yet been completed and there is no certainty the company's projections will be realized.
At the time of this study, Métanor had just completed a $20M financing which has been used for development work carried out until now on the 2 properties. As stated in Geostat's economic study of the Barry-Bachelor project, the project will generate a cumulative operating cash flow of $6.5M over 7 years. During spring 2007 the Company repurchased NSR's that will create savings of $3M thus increasing the operating cash flow of the same amount. Furthermore, the Company was successful in raising over $20M in fiscal year 2006-2007, this amounts was not taken into consideration in the Geostat economic study and will increase Metanor's cash flow.
Considering all of the above factors and that the Geostat study used a gold price of $660 CAD versus the current higher price suggests that the cash flow could be significantly higher.
Additionally, the recovery of further resources that were not used (477,930 T containing approximately 110,298 ounces of gold), assuming the same operating costs, would increase mine life and total cash flow. |
