Stratabound Files PEA Technical Report for the Fremont Gold Project, California Mother Lode Gold Belt
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - April 4, 2023) - Stratabound Minerals Corp. (TSXV: SB) (OTCQB: SBMIF) ("Stratabound" or the "Company") announces today the filing of a National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report ("Technical Report") relating to its 100% owned Fremont Gold Project (the "Project"). The Technical Report, titled "Preliminary Economic Assessment of the Fremont Gold Project, Mariposa County, Central California, USA", (the "PEA") and dated March 31, 2023 (effective date of February 15, 2023) is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) under the Company's profile and on its website at www.stratabound.com.
Highlights:
After-tax net present value ("NPV") (discount rate 5%) of US$217M, internal rate of return ("IRR") of 21% and payback of 4.2 years at a gold price of US$1,750/oz
11-year mine life producing 1,303,000 ounces of gold
Average annual gold production of 118,000 ounces over life of mine ("LOM"), with a peak production of 157,000 ounces in the 4th year
Average cash cost of US$924/oz and all-in sustaining cost ("AISC") of US$1,162/oz gold
Initial Capital Expenditure of US$203M
Annual process plant rate of 2.19 M tonnes at an average feed grade of 2.4 g/t Au and average overall gold recovery, including offsite processing, of 75.4%
The PEA is preliminary in nature, includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. There are no Mineral Reserves contained in the PEA.
P&E Mining Consultants Inc. ("P&E") were retained as an independent consultant and Qualified Persons in March 2022 to undertake and author a Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE") and PEA on the Fremont Gold Project in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101"). Kappes, Cassiday & Associates ("KCA") of Nevada were also engaged for the design and capital and operating costs for the process plant, heap leach facility and project infrastructure.
Project Description and Location
The Fremont Gold Project is 100% owned by Fremont Gold LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratabound Minerals Corp., and is located in Mariposa County, California approximately 241 km east of San Francisco in the southernmost portion of the prolific California Mother Lode Gold Belt. The Project lies within the Company's wholly owned 3,351-acre (13.56 km2) Fremont Property (the "Property"). The Property includes 100% of the mineral, surface and groundwater rights, and features four gold mineralized zones and three former producing gold mines along 4km of the Mother Lode Gold Belt. The PEA considers two of these zones, the Pine Tree/Josephine Deposit and the Queen Specimen Deposit, along 1.4 km of the 4 km total strike length. California State Highway 49 transects the Property from north to south and a 70 kV power transmission line traverses the Property.
Next Steps
The results of the PEA indicate that the proposed Fremont Gold Project has technical and financial merit using the base case assumptions. It has also identified additional upside opportunities for oxide expansion and further Project optimization.
The Company expects to move forward with enhancing the Project through exploration and further drilling. The Company will also continue to generate additional drilling targets.
The Company expects to continue baseline environmental work and commence permitting activities which will include technical studies and surveys for the Project. The results of the studies, surveys and the engineering work completed for the PEA will be used to complete the permitting applications The public release of this PEA will greatly assist the Company in advancing its program of public and stakeholder engagement.
Independent Qualified Persons
This PEA was prepared for Stratabound by P&E and under NI 43-101 guidelines. The technical content of this news release has been reviewed and approved by independent "Qualified Persons" Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., FEC, CET, and Andrew Bradfield, P.Eng. both of P&E, and Travis Manning, P.E. of KCA.
ABOUT STRATABOUND
Stratabound Minerals Corp. is a Canadian mineral exploration and development company that is developing its advanced-stage flagship Fremont Gold Project in the historic Mother Lode Gold Belt of California. The Fremont Property features an NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) of 1.16 million Au ounces at an average grade of 1.90 g/t Au within 19.0 million tonnes in the Indicated classification, plus 2.02 million ounces at an average grade of 2.22 g/t Au within 28.3 million tonnes in the Inferred Mineral Resource classification. This current MRE evaluates only 1.4 km of the entire 4 km strike length of the Fremont Property that features four gold-mineralized zones. The Company is also advancing its pipeline of early-stage exploration projects in Canada including the Golden Culvert, Yukon and McIntyre Brook gold projects, and the Captain Cobalt-Copper-Gold Deposit in New Brunswick.
Mr. R. Kim Tyler, P.Geo., President and CEO of Stratabound, and a "Qualified Person" for the purpose of NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents and technical information of this news release.
For more information, please visit the company's website at www.stratabound.com or contact: R. Kim Tyler, President and CEO 416-915-4157 info@stratabound.com.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.
WARNING: The Company relies upon litigation protection for "forward-looking" statements. The information in this release may contain forward-looking information under applicable securities laws. This forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking information. Factors that may cause actual results to vary materially include, but are not limited to, inaccurate assumptions concerning the exploration for and development of mineral deposits, currency fluctuations, unanticipated operational or technical difficulties, changes in laws or regulations, failure to obtain regulatory, exchange or shareholder approval, the risks of obtaining necessary licenses and permits, changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets and the inability to raise additional financing. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information. The Company does not assume the obligation to revise or update this forward-looking information after the date of this release or to revise such information to reflect the occurrence of future unanticipated events, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.
To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/161212