go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
International Tower Hill is a gold exploration company which controls a 100% interest in the world-class Livengood Gold Project in Alaska. Its substantial size ranks the Livengood Project as one of the most significant new gold discoveries of the past 20 years. The project was acquired from AngloGold Ashanti as part of a regional program divestment in which ITH acquired all of AngloGold's active exploration properties and assets in the region for a 19.99% equity interest in ITH at the transaction date. In addition, ITH hired key members of AngloGold's North American exploration team to manage its ongoing exploration activities.
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
Since 2006, ITH has been focused on the aggressive advancement of the Livengood project and is now in the midst of a two-phase prefeasibility study.
Livengood
The Livengood property has been prospected and explored by several companies and private individuals since the 1970's. Geochemical surveys by Cambior in 2000 and AngloGold Ashanti in 2003 and 2004 outlined a 1.6 x 0.8 km area with anomalous gold in soil. Scattered anomalous samples continue along strike for an additional 2 km to the northeast and 1.6 km to the southwest.
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
For the last several years ITH has successfully expanded the resource base of the Livengood Project, they are now in transition from an exploration focus to undertaking a Pre-feasibility Study. However, exploration at the Livengood property continues, with a total of 7 drilling rigs working at the site during the Summer 2010 Program.
Let's talk about the size of the deposit. From the chart below you can see that it's big, but there are two components here. Grade and ounces. There are 15.7 million oz of gold at .62 g/t in the indicated category, or 6.9 million oz at 1.07 g/t, depending on where you set your limits at. If we want to use some comparisons here, take Detour Gold as an example. In 2008 they had a defined resource of 13.2 million oz at a grade of around 1 g/t, compare this to ITH's current 8.3 million oz at 1.07 g/t.
Classification Au Cutoff (g/t) Tonnes (millions) Au (g/t) Million Ounces Au
Indicated 0.30 789 0.62 15.7
Inferred 0.30 229 0.55 4.9
Indicated 0.50 409 0.83 10.9
Inferred 0.50 94 0.79 2.4
Indicated 0.70 202 1.07 6.9
Inferred 0.70 40 1.06 1.4
Using the current defined resource, ITH initiated pre-feasibility studies in June of 2010 in order to determine the most effective mine development strategy. The Preliminary Assessment evaluated both the mining of the oxide portion of the deposit, and the expansion of the mining into the deeper, sulphide portion of the deposit. In other words they are contemplating two configurations here.
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
1. Open pit mining of the oxide portion with processing limited to heap leach only.
2. Open pit mining of both the oxide and sulphide zones with a combination of heap leaching and mill processing (gravity and flotation concentration with CIL). Heap leach processing will allow production of approximately 40% of the currently estimated mineable resource.
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
Heap Leach Only Project Configuration
A heap leach only configuration will cost about $680 million to construct, with production averaging 514,000 oz per year for 7.1 years.
Estimated Resource for Heap Oxide Option (Cutoff 0.3 g/t Au)
Indicated: 251Mt @ 0.62 g/t Au for 5.03 Moz Au contained, 3.54 Moz Au recoverable
Inferred : 9 Mt @ 0.54 g/t Au for 0.15 Moz Au contained, 0.11 Moz Au recoverable
Parameter Heap Leach Only
Long Term Gold Price $US/oz $950
IRR % 26.9%
NPV @0.0% k $US $ 915,338
NPV @5.0% k $US $ 579,103
NPV @7.5% k $US $ 455,882
NPV @10.0% k $US $ 354,531
Initial Capex k $US $ 679,851
Deferred Capex k $US -
Sustaining Capex k $US $ 153,482
Life of Mine (LOM) years 7.1
LOM mineralization production Mt 259.3
Mined grade at 0.3 g/t gold cut -off grade g/t 0.62
Contained gold mined koz 5,177
Estimated LOM gold production koz 3,648
Cash operating cost $US/oz $486
Total cost $US/oz $704
Stripping ratio Waste:ore 1.10
Assumed LOM heap leach gold recovery % 70.5%
Heap Leach and Mill Project Configuration
Now, if ITH wants to fully exploit the Livengood resource then that will require the addition of a mill process which would allow extraction of the deeper, sulphide zones. This will result in average production of 833,000 oz of gold for 12.6 years. Cash cost are higher at $534 per oz than the heap leach only option, and capex will be $1.6 billion. The company evaluated two different mill throughpu
Indicated : 600 Mt @ 0.65 g/t Au for 12.6 Moz Au contained, 9.81 Moz Au recoverable
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
Inferred : 48 Mt @ 0.64 g/t Au for 1.0 Moz Au contained, 0.77 Moz Au recoverable
Parameter Heap Leach and 50 ktpd Mill Heap Leach and 100 ktpd Mill
Long Term Gold Price $US/oz $950 $950
IRR % 15.4% 18.5%
NPV @0.0% k $US $ 1,982,082 $ 2,236,376
NPV @5.0% k $US $ 813,143 $ 1,112,868
NPV @7.5% k $US $ 495,034 $ 759,768
NPV @10.0% k $US $ 275,370 $ 496,163
Initial Capex k $US $ 635,631 $ 682,839
Deferred Capex k $US $ 750,214 $ 1,026,658
Sustaining Capex k $US $ 503,596 $ 578,476
Life of Mine (LOM) years 21 13
LOM mineralization production Mt 648.3 648.3
Mined grade at 0.3 g/t gold cut-off grade g/t 0.65 0.65
Contained gold mined koz 13,625 13,625
Estimated LOM gold production koz 10,580 10,580
Cash operating cost $US/oz $ 560 $534
Total cost $US/oz $ 739 $ 734
Stripping ratio Waste:ore 1.07 1.07
LOM mill gold recovery % 81.3% 81.3%
LOM leach gold recovery % 72.6% 72.6%
Internal rates of return for the Heap Leach and Mill configuration are lower for both mill throughput assumptions due to the larger investment required for construction of the mill and the longer mine life. However, the NPV@5% is greater for the combination Heap Leach and Mill project configurations as a result of substantially greater gold production due to exploitation of the deeper, sulphide zones.
Increasing the gold price assumption illustrates the substantial leverage of the Livengood Project to the gold price, where a $200 price increase (to $1150 per ounce) increases the IRR to 29.2% and 32.6% (50 ktpd/100 ktpd mill throughput), respectively.
The projected completion of the Pre-Feasibility for the heap leach only operation is July 2011, the heap leach and mill will be completed in December 2011.
As previously mentioned before, the company continues to explore the property and the deposit remains open in all directions. They have recently been finding high grade gold in the Southwest and Tower areas. These higher grade shallow deposits that they are discovering could really boost the economics of a mill.
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
$30 million cash
74 million shares fully diluted
Conclusion
ITH owns the large Livengood deposit located in Alaska. It is still in the early stages but if the company can continue to expand the resource as well as bump up the grade, then this could become the next Detour Gold or Osisko Mining. The Livengood deposit is also in a good location and it doesn't look like ITH will have any issues with permitting or infrastructure. The current resource base is very large, and hopefully they can start converting some of it into reserves in the near future.
ITH is looking at two scenario's for Livengood, either a heap leach operation or a heap leach along with a mill. The stand alone heap leach operation will cost about $680 million and will produce 514,000 oz of gold per year for 7.1 years. If they add a mill(large) then average production will increase to 833,000 oz of gold per year for 12.6 years. But it's going to cost them $1 billion extra for this. Again, this was just a Preliminary Assessment. They are currently in the process of conducting a Pre-Feasibility Study on both scenarios but they won't be completed for about another year.
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
The good news is the deposit reamins open in all direction, and ITH is discovering several high grade areas that are close to the surface. This could substantially boost the economics of both scenarios. In other words, this project could greatly increase in size and cash cost could come down quite a bit should the company be able to include some higher grade resources into the plan.
But Livengood is also pretty far off from even entering production. It could be 2016 before ITH could get a heap leach and mill up and running. They can reduce that timeline by a few years if they just go with a heap leach, and then down the road add a mill to the design. The final design plan will really depend on how successful they are at expanding the resource base along with the average grade.
The company has a market cap of $500 million, so there is plenty of upside still in the shares. Detour Gold has a market cap of $2.5 billion, they have 21 million oz of reserves/resources, and the average grade is just over 1 g/t. Livengood isn't as large, but it could be in a year or two. I don't know though how much the grade can improve, that is the key here. If ITH can eventually convert these resources into about 10 million oz of reserves and bump up the grade slightly, then a market cap of $1.5 billion would be realistic.
go to
https://sites.google.com/site/goldandsilver2012/company-reviews-by-goldstocksdaily-com/international-tower-hill-mines
by
http://goldstocksdaily.com/2010/10/31/international-tower-hill-mines/
0 comments:
إرسال تعليق