Aneel Waraich, Executive Vice President and Director of Steppe Gold Ltd (TSX: STGO) (OTCQX: STPGF), joins us to outline the transaction to acquire the Boroo Gold Mine, as the next step in gold production growth in Mongolia. Additionally, we get an update on the progress and pathway forward on the Phase 2 expansion, at the (AT0) Altan Tsagaan Ovoo Gold Mine in Mongolia.
The Boroo Gold acquisition will establish Steppe Gold as Mongolia’s largest and leading gold producer, where production is expected to triple over the next two years to 90,000 ounces and 160,000 ounces by 2026, increasing their financial strength. We also discussed the news out January 9th that announced the Company has entered into a turnkey engineering, procurement and construction contract (the EPC Contract), with Hexagon Build Engineering LLC, for the Phase 2 Expansion at the ATO Gold Mine utilizing the non-dilutive US$150M project financing for the ATO Gold Mine Phase 2 Expansion.
The Phase 2 sulfide production is projected to bring on ~103,000 ounces of gold production per annum, for a total of 12-14 years at AISC of US ~$850-$900. For the balance of 2024, the Company is currently in Phase 1 oxide production, and is targeting 30,000 ounces of production from the heap leach operations at ATO. When combined with the 60,000 ounces of production from Boroo, that gives the company a profile of 90,000 ounces of gold production in 2024, and when Phase 2 commences the very end of 2025, it will move the production profile to around 160,000 gold ounces of production in 2026.
Next we discussed the potential, through exploration, to expand both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 mine life. Currently the exploration team is targeting drilling for more nearby potential oxide mineralization, which could also extend the Phase 1 mine life an additional 1-4 years, so that additional production would run in tandem with the commissioning of Phase 2. There is also still the potential to keep expanding the Phase 2 mine life, because some recent drill holes have already reported mineralization outside of the current mine plan, and there has been success drilling further at depth under known mineralization that is not yet factored into their reserves or current mine plan.
If you have any questions for Aneel about Steppe Gold, then please email us at either Fleck@kereport.com or Shad@kereport.com.
- In full disclosure, Shad is a shareholder of Steppe Gold at the time of this recording.
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