Vancouver — Fresh from picking up Rio Tinto’s (RTP-N) Wafi copper-gold deposit, Australian-based Aurora Gold says its nearby Morobe gold project in Papua New Guinea would generate inadequate returns relative to the risks of developing a project in the country.
Despite strong statistical confirmation of the structure, grade and extent of the orebody, the feasibility studies indicate that high infrastructure costs put a damper on advancing the project. Aurora says it will undertake additional drilling and a review of the development costs.
Despite the negative findings, Aurora is still keen on Wafi. The company has elected to waive a condition that it make a decision to develop the Morobe project before proceeding with the acquisition of the Wafi tenements.
Both projects are located within Morobe province, which is a historic centre of gold mining in Papua New Guinea. Large dredging operations were developed in the 1930s, following the discovery of alluvial gold in the 1920s.
At Aurora’s Mt Muro mine on the island of Kalimantan in Indonesia, gold production held steady at 57,290 gold-equivalent ounces in the quarter ended June 30.
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