The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North
North of 60 Mining News - December 20, 2024
Curt Freeman (left), who led the geological team that discovered and delineated the gold deposits at Manh Choh, and Contango Ore CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse with the first bar of gold from Manh Choh.
Contango Ore Inc. Dec. 19 received a cash payment of $9 million for the profits from its 30% share of the gold and silver recovered during the processing of the third batch of ore from Manh Choh Mine.
Under the Peak Gold Joint Venture between Kinross (70%) and Contango (30%), high-grade ore mined at Manh Choh Mine is trucked roughly 240 miles to be processed through the Kinross Alaska mill at Fort Knox.
The ore is stockpiled at Fort Knox and then processed in batches. The initial batch was processed in July, a second batch in September, and the final batch for 2024 was processed in November.
A total of 139,000 ounces of gold and 54,380 oz of silver were recovered during the three campaigns completed during the second half of 2024.
"The Peak Gold JV completed three campaigns in 2024, with Contango's 30% share of production in 2024 totaling approximately 42,000 ounces of gold and 16,300 ounces of silver, which greatly exceeded, by approximately 30%, the company's original guidance of 30,000 to 35,000 ounces of gold production for 2024," said Contango Ore President and CEO Rick Van Nieuwenhuyse.
After paying production costs, Contango received three cash payments totaling $40.5 million for its share of the precious metals sold.
"The company's share of the Manh Choh mine production in 2025 is expected to be 60,000 ounces of gold, with the company expected to receive an average of 58,750 ounces of gold per year through 2028 for Contango's share of production with estimated life of mine all-in sustaining costs of approximately $1,400 per ounce of gold sold," Van Nieuwenhuyse added.
Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.
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