Belvedere Announces Positive PEA on their Kopsa Gold Copper Project
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--( October 2, 2013) - Belvedere Resources Limited (TSX Venture:BEL) ("The Company") is pleased to announce the results of a Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) on their 100% owned Kopsa gold copper project. The study has been prepared by SRK Consulting (Sweden) AB and is compliant with Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) definitions and guidelines of National Instrument 43-101 and accompanying documents 43-101F1 and 43-101CP.
Highlights (pre-tax and pre-finance) of the Base Case Model*
- Net Present Value (8%) of US$38.6 million
- Internal Rate of Return of 47.6%
- Gross Revenue of US$ 282 million
- Undiscounted Cashflow of US$66 million
- Life of Mine (LoM) 9 years at peak rate of 1.2 Mtpa
- LoMCapital costs of US$ 48.3 million (owner operator model and 25% contingency)
- LoM Operating Costs of $700/ozgold equivalence (tozAuEq)
- LoM stripping ratio of 0.63 (waste to run of mine tonnes)
- Annual average production of 27,000 oz'sgold and 1,050 tonnes (2.3 million pounds) of copper at average operating cost of $645/tozAuEqover the first six years
- LoM production of 196,000 oz's of gold and 8,200 t (18.1 million pounds) of copperat a mined grade of 0.91 g/t Au and 0.15% copper
* Base Case Model has been calculated using: gold price of USD 1,200 /toz; copper price of USD 6,000 /tonne; silver price of USD 20 /toz; discount rate of 8%; USD:EUR exchange rate of 0.75. The mining schedule envisages co-processing intermediate ore stockpile in the final 3 years. The operating costs $/tozAuEq are calculated by Total Operating Costs � ($1,200 � Gross Revenues (including by-products)).
Production and Processing Summary
It is currently envisaged that Kopsa is to be mined by conventional open pit methods using an excavator-truck configuration at an annual rate of 1.2 Mtpaand,following on-site sorting, transportation of material to Belvedere's Hitura processing facilities,which are located approximately 19 km via sealed road from the deposit. The project has an extremely low life of mine stripping ratio of 0.63 tonnes of waste to 1 tonne of run of mine material.
The Base Case scenario entails on-site crushing and sorting based on X-ray transmission (XRT) technology, which reduces the amount of ore to be trucked to and processed at the Hitura Mill. The Hitura mill until recently processed nickel sulphide ore at a nominal annual throughput rate of 600 ktpa.In order to treat Kopsa ore, the flotation circuit would be configured to produce two sulphide concentrates, a marketable copper sulphide concentrate, containing some gold and silver, and a bulk sulphide concentrate. The bulk sulphide concentratewould be cyanide leached for the recovery of gold and silver followed by a conventional Carbon-in-Pulp (CIP) / Carbon-in-Leach (CIL) recovery, producing a smelted gold/silver dor� onsite.
Capital and Operating Costs
Table 1Summary of PEA Capital Costs. Euros converted from USD at 0.75EUR/USD
Table 2: Summary of PEA Operating Costs. Euros converted from USD at 0.75EUR/USD
Mineral Resource Estimate
As part of the PEA, SRK has estimated a Mineral Resource estimatefor the Kopsa deposit.A pit optimisation exercise was carried out based on assumed operating costs, slope angles, mining recoveries and revenue assumptions derived during course of the PEA, and was used to constrain the Mineral Resource to that material which SRK considers has reasonable prospect for eventual economic extraction.
The statement has been classified in accordance with the CIM Definitions by the Qualified Persons, who are independent consultants employed by SRK consulting, with no current or prior relationship to Belvedere other than in the capacity of independent consultants.
Table 3Mineral Resource Statement (reported above a marginal cut-off grade of 0.5 g/t AuEq and within the Whittle shell). Effective Date 2nd October, 2013
Important Cautionary Note Relating to Results of PEA
The economic analysis performed by SRK for the purpose of the PEA, is based only on Measured and Indicated Resources. Despite no Inferred resources being included, the economic analysis is still preliminary in nature, and only indicates the potentialtechnical and economic viability of the project. The technical and economic viability of the project has not yet been demonstrated. Conversion of the Measured and Indicated Resources into Mineral Reserves would require the support of a pre-feasibility level study. There is no certainty that the reserves development, or production and economic forecasts on which this Preliminary Economic Assessment is based will be realised.
Qualified Persons
The results disclosed in this news release are based upon the PEA study "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Kopsa Copper-Gold Deposit, Finland" which includes an updated Mineral Resource Estimate. The PEA, Mineral Resource Estimateand this news release were prepared under the supervision of Johan Bradley (MSc, FGS CGeol, EurGeol) Principal Geologist and Managing Director of SRK Consulting (Sweden) AB; and Dr Mike Armitage (BSc, MIMMM, FGS, CEng), Group Chairman and Corporate Consultant (Mining Geology), SRK (UK) Ltd., who are fulfilling the role of Independent Qualified Persons as defined in Sections 1.1 and 1.5 of National Instrument 43-101
Data Verification
In order to independently verify Belvedere's drill database, during the site visit, Johan Bradley (QP) carried out:
- An inspection of several drill collars at the Kopsa site to confirm location of these;
- Drill core inspection of nine Belvedere holes with good spatial representation across the deposit, cross-checking geology, mineralization, sample interval and sample numbers against the Company's drill database; and
- Collection of 44 coarse reject samples for check assaying. These samples were selected by SRK on the basis of their spatial and temporal representivity.
The number of collars located in the field, drill cores reviewed and check samples selected for assay by the QP represents a small proportion of the overall number of drill collars and analysis carried out on the Project as a whole. Notwithstanding this, no material errors were found during the course of these checks, addingto SRK's confidence in Belvedere'sdrillhole database and the repeatability of the assay methods used.
Further Information Relating to Mineral Resource Estimate
SRK created a geological model based on a statistical review of the validated drillhole data. Two domains were outlined by SRK - an Au-rich and a Cu-rich domain. These domains were created based on statistical grade breaks with a 0.08% Cu, and 0.2 g/t Au cut-off being utilised to delineate the domains. It was not possible to model the individual high-grade Au veins due to the current drill spacing and nature of the mineralization.
A 2 m composite file was used in a geostatistical study (variography and quantitative kriging neighbourhood analysis - QKNA) that resulted in ordinary kriging (OK) being selected as the interpolation method. The interpolation used an elliptical search following the predominant dip and dip direction of the geological domains. The results of the variography and the QKNA were utilised to determine the most appropriate search parameters for each domain.
A block model consisting of 10m x 10m x 5m blocks was created, with Au and Cu being interpolated into the model using OK, and Ag, As and S interpolated using Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW). Tonnages were estimated based on a specific gravity (SG) of 2.73 g/cm3, which was determined from 1,650 density measurements within the mineralised zone.
The interpolated block model was validated through visual checks, a comparison of the mean composite and block grades and through the generation of section validation slices. SRK is confident that the interpolated grades are a reasonable reflection of the available sample data.
A pit optimisation exercise was carried out based on assumed operating costs, slope angles, mining recoveries and revenue assumptions derived by SRK during course of the PEA, and was used to constrain the Mineral Resource to that material which SRK considers has reasonable prospect for eventual economic extraction. The Mineral Resource reported for Kopsa was constrained within a Lerchs-Grossman pit shell defined by a marginal cut-off-grade of 0.50 g/t AuEq, a metal price for copper USD 7,865 /tonne and metal price for gold USD1,508 / oz; overall slope angles of 45� and 50� for the footwall and hangingwallrespectively; a mining recovery of 97%; a mining dilution of 5%; mining costs of USD3.5/tonne,process operating costs of USD13/tonne processed materialinclude G&A costs; and a transport cost of USD5.6/tonne.
Gold equivalence (AuEq) calculations were based on using forecast long term metal prices (as above) and assumed recoveries. The following calculation was used to assign AuEq values to each block:
AuEq (g/t) = 0.982830*Au (g/t) + 1.672011*Cu (%)
The Qualified Personsare not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-political, marketing, or other relevant issues that would preclude the reporting of the Mineral Resource given here.
Further Information Relating to PEA
SRK has utilised a number of assumptions for the purposes of the PEA. Full details will be provided in the Technical Report to be filed on SEDAR. The main assumptions are summarised below.
Table 4: Summary of key assumptions for PEA
Filing of PEA on SEDAR
A NI 43-101 Technical Report titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment for the Kopsa Copper-Gold Deposit, Finland" and dated 2nd October, 2013 will be filed on SEDAR within 45 days to support this news release.
Forward Looking Statement:
Some of the statements contained herein may be forward-looking statement, which involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Without limitation, statements regarding the future economics or development of the Kopsa project, and future plans and objectives of the Company are forward looking statements that involve various degrees of risk. It is important to note that the Company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements.
BELVEDERE RESOURCES LTD.
David Pym, CEO; Suite #404, Vancouver World Trade Centre, 999 Canada Place, Vancouver, BC V6C 3E2, Canada
Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Contact Information
Belvedere Resources Ltd.
David Pym
CEO
+1-604-844-2838
Belvedere Resources Ltd.
Toby Strauss
COO
+1-604-844-2838
Investor Relations
Scott Findlay
647-274-2536
www.belvedere-resources.com