Northern Orion Explorations (NNO-T) poured its first bar of gold at the newly constructed leach facility at the Mantua mine, 240 km west of Havana, Cuba. The event marks the Vancouver-based junior’s first-ever gold production.
The gold leach facility was completed in February, ahead of schedule. The final capital cost was within budget, ringing in at US$10 million.
The deposit consists of a gold-rich gossan cap overlying a high-grade, secondary-enriched copper deposit. The gossan cap has an estimated minable reserve of 1.7 million tonnes grading 1.7 grams gold per tonne, equivalent to 101,700 contained ounces.
At the end of February, the company reported that about 150,000 tonnes of ore had been placed on the leach pad.
The company hopes to produce 75,000 oz. gold over the next two years.
Average cash costs are forecast at less than US$200 per oz. gold.
An independent reserve estimate for the Mantua copper deposit, which underlies the gossan cap, pegs it at 12 million tonnes grading 2% copper.
The company is presently evaluating a copper leach operation utilizing solvent-extraction electrowinning (SX-EW) recovery techniques to produce copper cathode on site.
The Mantua project is held equally by Northern Orion and the Cuban government.
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