As previously disclosed by Arizona Gold, Copperstone remains on track for operational restart in Q4 2021 and first gold production in Q1 2022.
– Final engineering: Arizona Gold has secured several key mining consultants and is finalising details to prepare for operational restart.
– Backfill and ground control: Preliminary conclusions from geotechnical studies have indicated the opportunity for wider mining widths than originally contemplated by Arizona Gold.
– Mine engineering: Final mine design and schedules are being prepared in advance of the forthcoming reserve update and ramp-up to full mine production.
– Mine operations: Arizona Gold has initiated pre-production mine ground support rehabilitation and will soon begin stope definition drilling, which is a requirement for detailed final gold ore stope designs.
– Mineral processing plant: Work completed in concert with Hanlon Engineering, Arizona Gold’s EPCM contractor, includes final layout and design of the new Whole Ore Leach gold processing plant.
Arizona Gold announced on April 27, 2021 the completion of their underground core hole drilling program, having successfully tested the continuity of near-infrastructure mineralisation in various previously defined mineral domains and previously planned stopes.
Reverse circulation close-spaced in-fill drilling is expected to commence in May in order to provide detailed information for stope mining design.
As described above, these first two instalments, totalling US$12 million, are being allocated by Arizona Gold to advance detailed engineering, secure long-term lead equipment, perform pre-operational mining activities and to prepare the plant area for the installation of the new WOL processing equipment.
Alex Pernin, Chief Executive Officer of Star Royalties, commented: “We are pleased with Arizona Gold’s prudent capital allocation of our stream financing thus far and are encouraged with Arizona Gold’s restart activities and drilling program results announced to date.
With a strategy to also invest in green opportunities, Star Royalties pioneered one of the first forest carbon offset credit royalties and is pursuing a pipeline of additional green investments.
A number of factors could cause actual results, performances or achievements to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, changes in business plans and strategies, market conditions, share price, best use of available cash, the ability of the Company to identify and execute future acquisitions on acceptable terms or at all, risks inherent to royalty and streaming companies, title and permitting matters, metal and mineral commodity price volatility, discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries, mining operation and development risks relating to the parties which produce the metals and minerals Star Royalties will purchase or from which it will receive royalty or streaming payments, regulatory restrictions, activities by governmental authorities , currency fluctuations, the global social and economic climate, natural disasters and global pandemics, including COVID-19, dilution, and competition.