The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
Mining Explorers 2022 - January 19, 2023
The world-class copper-gold-silver-molybdenum Casino project in Yukon, Canada, covers roughly 21,126 hectares (52,203 acres) and lies within the Whitehorse Mining District.
The fly-in camp at the Casino copper-gold project in the Yukon.
With access road construction underway, Western Copper and Gold Corp. prepped its world-class Casino gold-silver-copper-molybdenum project to be ready for development with exploration and expansion programs to crack open this jackpot discovery.
Located about 300 kilometers (186 miles) northwest of Whitehorse, this highly prospective project that Western Copper and Gold subsidiary, Casino Mining Corp., has been advancing since acquiring the property in 2008 is found within the traditional territory of the Selkirk First Nation.
Historically, two prefeasibility studies and a feasibility study on developing a mine at Casino have been released. Western Copper and Gold, however, has substantially expanded the deposit and, in 2021, published a preliminary economic assessment outlining an economically robust mine at Casino.
The 2021 PEA came on the heels of Rio Tinto Canada Inc.'s C$25.6 million (US$21.2 million) investment to acquire a roughly 8% stake in Western and a foothold in Casino.
With the strategic investment from Rio Tinto, Western finalized a 2022 feasibility study that details plans for an open pit mine with a 120,000-metric-ton-per-day and 25,000 tpd oxide heap leach facility that is expected to average 163 million lb of copper, 211,000 oz of gold, 1.28 million oz of silver, and 15.1 million lb of molybdenum annually over a mine life of 27 years.
With the completion of the feasibility study, Casino hosts 1.22 billion metric tons of proven and probable reserves averaging 0.19% (5.08 billion lb) copper, 0.22 grams per metric ton (8.5 million oz) gold, 1.7 g/t (64.9 million oz) silver, and 0.021% (572 million lb) molybdenum.
The mine detailed in the study would generate an estimated after-tax net present value (5% discount) of C$5.77 billion and an 18.1% after-tax internal rate of return.
"The results from the feasibility study confirm the project's robustness and ability to withstand inflationary pressures," said Western Copper and Gold President and CEO Paul West-Sells. "This study reaffirms Casino as one of the very few long-life copper-gold projects with robust economics in a top mining district, the Yukon."
In order to maximize this world-class deposit, Western Copper and Gold has been waiting patiently for the finalization of the Yukon Resource Gateway Program, a C$469 million contract for the Carmacks Bypass Project, the first of eleven projects that comprise the mining road improvement program in the Yukon.
Set to initially connect a road south of Carmacks to join the existing Freegold Road, the road upgrade and extension has been a long time coming and, once in play, will provide Casino with a means of delivering copper concentrates to global markets.
With the positive feasibility study and road access inching closer, Western is preparing to submit permits for developing the Casino Mine.
"We are continuing to collaborate with our strategic investor, Rio Tinto, and continue to engage with First Nations and community stakeholders to advance this project toward the submission of Casino's environmental and socio-economic statement in mid-2023," said West-Sells.
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