Kore Mining reports $610mn NPV for Imperial Oxide Gold

Kore Mining has reported a Net Present Value (NPV) of US$610mn at its Imperial Oxide Gold Deposit, with a 70% Internal Rate of Return (IRR).

The figures at its fully owned California project, released as part of a preliminary economic assessment, indicate "significant gold leverage" at recent gold spot prices of US$1,900oz, and potential for 146,000oz gold per year, yielding 1.2mnoz total production. 

CEO Scott Trebilcock said the alternate infrastructure locations assessed in recent work shows robust project economics across all scenarios. 

"Imperial remains a technically simple, high-return gold project in a safe, politically stable jurisdiction with a long tradition of gold mining," he said. "All scenarios use conventional open pit mining techniques, proven processing technology and existing infrastructure."

With its ACES initiative – A Clean Environment for the Salton Sea – the Imperial Project aims to deliver positive social and environmental impacts for local stakeholders – such as cleaner air from ACES, generational job creation and training, respect for land heritage and complete land restoration post-mining including backfilling open pits. 

The overall Mesquite-Imperial-Picacho District consists approximately of 31,000 acres of claims capturing the entire 28km trend from the operating Mesquite mine to the closed Picacho mine, and includes the Imperial project. 

In the District, gold is hosted in local fault structures related to a series of regional faults connecting the known District deposits.  Those three District deposits (Mesquite, Imperial and Picacho) were discovered in exposed outcrops and from placer workings.  The rest of the district is covered by alluvium and has never been systematically explored. 

Alongside targeting new oxide gold discoveries on the 14km Mesquite-Imperial trend, Kore's 2022 objectives include completing 12,000m of permitted exploration drilling at Long Valley, encompassing oxide resource growth and sulphides potential. Long Valley is a 100% owned epithermal gold and silver project located in Mono County, California, and spans 15,965 acres.

Marc Leduc, COO since late 2019, will retire in May and the search is underway for a replacement, who is expected to focus on delivering exploration permits and drilling.