RE: SATORI SEEKS TO RECOVER GOLD FROM TAILINGS; 79 "while adjustments to crushing, milling, and metallurgical recovery were being made, it is believed that much of the initial output of ore from underground went straight to the tailings. Satori is therefore assessing whether potential revenue can be generated from gold sales from the re-processing of the tailings, sufficient enough to offset full or partial costs of re-commissioning the mine”.
This statement is confusing. If the mill wasn't operating, then they would have stockpiled the ore. What I think they meant to say was that the mill wasn't operating properly which resulted in poor recovery.
The technical report shows recovery of 69% in 1987, rising to only 70% in 1988 and then 85% in 1989. In 3 years the mine produced 252,500 tons of ore containing 46,906 oz of Au. Only 35,814 oz were recovered in the mill leaving 11,092 oz in tailings. At $1,700 per oz, those 11,092 oz are worth nearly $19 mm.
Since the tailings are already mined and crushed, the cost to process them would only include transportation and milling.
I heard they have an arrangement to split the proceeds. Assume Au price is $1,700, processing cost is $1,000 per oz, 92% recovery, and 50% split of proceeds (just guessing). Then proceeds to Satori would be about $3.6 mm.
So, Satori has tailings worth perhaps $3.6 mm, working cap of $950,000 and the Tartan Lake mine and mill. The mkt cap of this collection of assets is $1.8 mm.