This was at Yahoo MAE but not at MNG. Gives a few additional detalis.
Reuters
Miramar expects to keep lid on mine building costs
Thursday March 25, 6:36 pm ET
(Amounts in U.S. dollars unless noted)
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 25 (Reuters) - Miramar Mining Corp. (Toronto:MAE.TO - News), a small Canadian mining
company, said on Thursday that the cost of building a mine at its gold project in the Arctic was unlikely to "deviate significantly"
from earlier estimates.
The statement follows a cost blowout at another
company's gold project in Nunavut, the same
territory where Miramar plans to develop its Doris
North venture into a gold mine at a cost of C$39
million ($29 million).
"The Doris North project is unusual in that it
comprises a very high grade gold reserve lying
close to surface, allowing capital costs to be
minimized," Miramar president and chief executive
Tony Walsh said.
Cumberland Resources Ltd. (Toronto:CLG.TO -
News) shocked investors this week when it said
higher steel, fuel and other construction costs had,
in two years, increased the cost of building a mine
at its Meadowbank gold deposit by 75 percent to
C$350 million ($261 million).
Analysts said the cost spiral should serve as a
warning to investors in other mine developments.
Cumberland is delaying developing the
Meadowbank project, Canada's third biggest
untapped gold deposit, by at least a year as it
looks for ways to slash runaway costs.
Miramar's stock fell 13 percent on Monday, the day
that Cumberland dropped its bombshell. But the stock has since clawed back, closing 1 Canadian cent firmer at C$2.39 on
Thursday.
Miramar expects Doris North to produce about 311,000 ounces of gold over two years at a low cash cost of $109 an ounce.
"Doris North is an extremely robust project, and we believe it will become the cornerstone for the development of the Hope Bay
belt," Walsh said.
($1=$1.33 Canadian) |
