Tower
Gold
Project Overview
The Company’s 100% owned flagship Tower Gold Project, located 100 km east of Timmins, is one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in Canada. Moneta has the largest land position in the eastern Timmins Camp, the most prolific gold producing belt in Canada and one of the top gold-producing areas in the world, with over 85 million ounces of gold produced to date. The project currently hosts a total indicated mineral resource of 4.46 million ounces of contained gold and a total inferred mineral resource of 8.29 million ounces contained gold. See Tower Gold Project Mineral Resource Estimate
The combined Golden Highway and Garrison areas, collectively the Tower Gold project, captures 17 kms of the Destor-Porcupine corridor. The combined project currently hosts a NI 43-101 resource, spanning only 9 km of the corridor and found primarily within sedimentary host rocks along a southern splay of the Destor. Resource growth potential exists along the remaining 8 km of largely sediment hosted mineralization along the regional banded iron formation (“BIF”) contact and within untested mafic volcanic rocks along additional splays of the Destor in contact with ultramafic units, where limited historical drilling has already confirmed gold mineralization. The main unconformity which occurs as the mafic volcanic-sediment contact also remains largely untested.
A Preliminary Economic Assessment Study (“PEA”) was produced on the Tower Gold Project and was announced on September 7, 2022. Highlights of the positive results of the study are shown below:
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PEA
(All figures are stated in Canadian dollars unless otherwise stated)
- Low capital intensity project, with initial capital ("CAPEX") of $517 million for a 7.0 million tonne per annum (“tpa”) processing plant including mine preproduction, infrastructure (roads, power line and substation, tailings storage facility, ancillary buildings, and site water management structures) and $886 million sustaining capital
- After-tax pay-back of 2.6 years and profitability index (NPV/initial capital) of 2.1
- Robust economics with $1,459 million pre-tax Net Present Value at a 5% discount rate (“NPV5%”), $1,066 million after-tax, and 38.9% pre-tax Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”), 31.7% after-tax; at US$1,600/oz gold and exchange rate of US$0.78/C$
- Highly leveraged to the gold price with after-tax NPV5% of $1,339 million, 37.8% IRR, and 2.2-year payback at spot US$1,700 per ounce gold
- $1,932 million cumulative after-tax cash flow over the life of mine (“LOM”)
- Mine life of 24 years, with average annual gold production of 261,014 oz in years 1 to 11 (192,666 oz for LOM) for 4,581,000 ounces total gold production LOM
- Peak annual gold production of 368,622 ounces
- Average mill head gold grade of 1.28 grams per tonne (“g/t”) gold (“Au”) in years 1 to 11 (0.94 g/t Au for LOM)
- Average mill recovery of 91.3% LOM
- Cash cost of US$910 per ounce and all-in sustaining cost (“AISC”) of US$1,073 per ounce gold
- Opportunities to increase production and expand and improve economics of resources
The Tower Gold Project combined resource includes:
- a total of 4,338,000 ounces of open pit indicated resources contained within 149.8 Mt @ 0.90 g/t Au and 6,652,000 ounces of open pit inferred resources contained within 223.9 Mt @ 0.92 g/t Au, at a cut-off grade of 0.30 g/t Au, and,
- 122,000 ounces of underground indicated resources contained within 0.8 Mt @ 4.75 g/t Au and 1,640,000 ounces of underground inferred resources within 11.7 Mt @ 4.35 g/t Au, at a 2.60 Au cut-off grade.
Tower Gold Project, Mineral Resources Map
Nine deposits on the property which have mineral resource estimates are South West, Westaway, Windjammer South, Windjammer Central, Discovery, 55 Zone, Garrcon, 903 and Jonpol. These have been classified as structurally controlled orogenic gold deposits in an Archean greenstone belt setting. This deposit type is a significant source of gold mined in the Superior and Slave provinces of the Canadian Shield.
The Golden Highway area has no royalties and the Garrison gold area is subject to net smelter royalties, of which some can be acquired, averaging approximately 1.5%.
Drilling is now focused on infill and resource category upgrade drilling. With the completion of the updated PEA announced on September 7, 2022, Moneta will focus on conducting a pre-feasibility study (“PFS”) on the Tower Gold project. The focus of the PFS has been determined by the results of the PEA and will consist of geotechnical studies, mine plan studies, metallurgical recovery test work, process design studies, hydrological studies and ongoing environmental and community engagement studies. The environmental impact assessment studies will continue throughout the year as will community engagement.
Tower Gold Project Location Map
