Even before Kinross Gold (TSE) made front page news this week with its purchase of Falconbridge gold it had begun building an asset base with the acquisition of two small U.S. gold mines and two mining projects from Kennecott, a subsidiary of RTZ of London. The price: US$16.75 million.
Kennecott acquired the properties when it bought the mineral assets of Nerco last March for about US$470 million.
Under the deal, Kinross takes ownership of the DeLamar open-pit gold and silver mine in southwest Idaho and the Candelaria heap-leach operation in Nevada.
DeLamar has 14.6 million tons grading 0.043 oz. gold per ton and 1.27 oz. silver (a gold equivalent of 775,800 oz.). When additional heap-leachable reserves are considered, the gold equivalent reserve exceeds one million ounces.
Reserves would support an 11-year mine life, with an annual expected gold equivalent output of 77,000 oz. The cash operating cost per gold ounce produced is about US$256, which is expected to be maintained over the mine’s life.
The open-pit Candelaria heap-leach mine near Hawthorne, Nev., is producing about 100,000 oz. silver and 200 oz. gold per month. No mining is occurring on the property, only heap leaching — and there are about two years of reserves. Kinross President Robert Buchan said that mining could be resumed depending on the price of silver.
The purchase included the America gold project near Twenty-nine Palms, Calif., and the Dunka Road copper-nickel property in northern Minnesota.
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