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Almaden Announces Ixtaca Gold-Silver Deposit PEA Update Showing Significant Capital Savings Using the Rock Creek Mill
VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - December 09, 2015) - Almaden Minerals Ltd. (TSX: AMM) (NYSE MKT: AAU) is pleased to report positive results from an updated Nation
About this update from Almaden Minerals Ltd.
[{"type":"text","content":" VANCOUVER, BC--(Marketwired - December 09, 2015) - Almaden Minerals Ltd. (TSX: AMM) (NYSE MKT: AAU) is pleased to report positive results from an updated National Instrument (NI) 43-101 compliant Preliminary Economic Assessment (\"PEA Update\") on its 100% owned Ixtaca Gold-Silver deposit, Mexico which incorporates the benefits of the Company's recently announced option to purchase the Rock Creek Mill. PEA UPDATE HIGHLIGHTS (all values shown are in $US; base case uses $1150/oz gold and $16/oz silver prices): Initial Capital is $100.2 million; After-tax payback of initial capital in 2.6 years. Pre-tax NPV(5%) of $266 million and internal rate of return of 39%; After-tax (including new Mexican Mining Duties) NPV(5%) of $166 million and internal rate of return of 30%; 36 million tonnes of mill feed averaging 0.76 g/t gold and 47 g/t silver (average head grade of 1.42 g/t gold equivalent using a 72:1 silver to gold ratio) Total LOM production of 724,000 ounces of gold and 49 million ounces of silver (1.4 million gold equivalent ounces, or 101 million silver-equivalent ounces at a 72:1 silver to gold ratio); Operating cost $684 per gold equivalent ounce, or $9.50 per silver equivalent ounce 97% of the PEA Update mill feed is in the Measured and Indicated categories of the resource model. Past PEAs filed on the project and this PEA update have been prepared by Moose Mountain Technical Services (\"MMTS\") and Knight Piésold Ltd. (\"KP\"). The conclusions and recommendations of past PEAs were that the Ixtaca deposit is potentially economically viable and the Company should proceed to a Pre-Feasibility study (\"PFS\"). Since that time work has commenced towards completion of a PFS, including a number of optimisation studies, and the Company has secured an option to purchase the Rock Creek Mill (see Almaden news release of October 19th, 2015). The primary reasons for providing an update to previous PEA studies on the Ixtaca Project are to show the impact of significantly reduced initial capital cost on project economics and to demonstrate the viability of an alternate mine plan which focuses on the near surface high grade limestone hosted portions of the Ixtaca Zone deposit. This alternate mine plan is a smaller high grade scenario that still allows for expansion into a larger production scenario as described in previous Ixtaca PEAs (see...